Author: Lacepède, 1801
Macrourus berglax Lacepède, 1801
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Macrourus berglax Lacepède, 1801 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body moderately slender, tapering evenly to pointed tail. Head broad, with ridges well-armed with scute-like scales bearing strong spinules, length about 25% of body length; snout prominent and pointed, about equal to eye, almost or entirely scaleless underneath; mouth moderate, inferior, teeth pointed, 3-5 irregular rows in upper jaw (outer row enlarged), 1-2 rows in lower jaw; small chin barbel present, about half eye diameter; gillrakers reduced; branchiostegal rays 6. First dorsal fin with 11-13 finrays, the second finray serrated; second dorsal beginning a short distance behind and in advance of anal fin origin, with short finrays; pectoral fin with 17-20 finrays below or just before dorsal fin origin, outer finray slightly elongated. Scales large, with a serrated median keel formed by a series of strong and closely contiguous spines. Pyloric caeca 15-26 (usually 19-21), long. Anus immediately before anal fin origin. No light organ. Colour: ash grey, the chest darker, hind edges of posterior scales dark-edged, as also anal fin; the first dorsal and pectoral fins sooty. Size: to 1 m TL or more.
Habitat: benthopelagic at 100-1,000 m. Food: essentially benthic animals, on the one hand fishes and shrimps, on the other amphipods, ophiurids and polychaete worms. Reproduction: in winter and spring, perhaps extending over whole year.
Distribution: northern part of area, from Spitzbergen to Norway and westwards to the Faroes, Iceland and south-western Greenland. Elsewhere, western North Atlantic (Labrador Sea to Georges Bank and western Greenland).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Yanulov (1962), size of ripe eggs.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.