Description

Dorsal spines (total): 7 - 8; Dorsal soft rays (total): 13 - 14; Anal spines: 3; Anal soft rays: 11 - 12. Head with a concave forehead profile and with large mucous cavities covered by tough skin; mouth large and oblique; opercle and preopercle each with a large strong spine; body deep, about 2.1 times in SL; ventral keel with 10 - 14 very robust scutes; caudal fin forked but rounded. Color of head and body is dusky pink, sides with silvery tinge, fins red; tongue and gill cavity blackish; palate white to red (Ref. 7331). Pale beet red to light rosy. Back light red to brownish red, lower sides light silvery gray (Ref. 37108).

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Teleostei

Order: Trachichthyiformes

Family: Trachichthyidae

Genus: Gephyroberyx

Species: Gephyroberyx darwinii (Johnson, 1866)

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

Lives close to or on the bottom of the upper continental slope. Prefers hard substrates. Young specimens feed on small shrimps and fish (Ref. 4784). A deep sea species, nonetheless, the young are often found near the coast (Ref. 9137). Utilized as fishmeal and source of oil in eastern central Atlantic (Ref. 3695).

Habitat

benthopelagic