Polymixia Lowe, 1836
Diagnosis: body deep and compressed, deepest at level of dorsal fin origin (depth nearly one-third of total length). Eye large; snout short and rounded; dorsal profile of head rounded; snout projecting beyond lower jaw; maxilla very broad posteriorly and extending backward beyond eye; mouth large, horizontal; small teeth in villiform bands in both jaws, teeth also present on vomer and palatines; margin of preopercle weakly serrated; a pair of long chin barbels inserted well behind symphysis of lower jaw. Gillrakers 3 on upper, and 8 on lower branch of first gill arch. Dorsal fin with 4-6 spines graduated in size and 30-38 soft rays, the anterior ones very long, forming an elevated lobe; anal fin with 3 or 4 short spines and 16-18 soft rays, beginning below the posterior portion of dorsal fin; pectoral fins with 1 spine and 6 soft rays; caudal fin forked. Body covered with large, ctenoid scales; head scaled, except on the preopercle; scales on top of head extending forward almost to nostrils; lateral line scales 45-54. Colour: greyish to greenish, the head darker; lobes of dorsal, anal and caudal fins marginate with black. Size: to 35 cm SL, usually 20-25 cm.
Habitat: demersal on the continental shelf and slope at depths ranging from 100 to 770 m. Locally abundant. Food: no data. Reproduction: no data.
Distribution: in the area, it occurs only off Madeira and the Azores. Elsewhere, off the Canaries, the Cape Verde Is., St Helena and in the tropical western Atlantic.
Species 1.
Species of this genus in the program:
Polymixia nobilis