Odontomacrurus Norman, 1939
Diagnosis: head length about 10% of body length, head and body deep, rapidly tapering to pointed tail. Snout blunt, upper head profile steeply rounded; eye relatively small (especially in larger fishes); mouth terminal, large, upper jaw reaching well back beyond eye, 15-20 large pointed teeth in upper jaw, 4-7 large retrorse teeth in lower jaw; no chin barbel; gillrakers 5-7, spiny, gill filaments short; branchiostegal rays 6. First dorsal fin with 8-10 finrays, the second finray smooth, origin of fin over or before pectoral fin base; second dorsal fin beginning some distance from first and well behind anal fin origin; pectoral fin with 9-11 finrays; pelvic fin with 7-8 finrays. Scales with rather slender upright spinules. Pyloric caeca 12, branched. Anus in centre of quite large and black naked area between pelvic fin bases and anal fin origin, and a small naked black fossa in front. Swimbladder regressed in adults. Colour: generally dark brown; juveniles to 18 cm light with a pattern of brown spots on head (especially behind eyes), trunk and tail. Size: to at least 50 cm TL.
Habitat: meso- to bathypelagic. Food: remains of fish found in one stomach. Reproduction: no data.
Distribution: the Azores Madeira and off Morocco. Elsewhere, southward to the Gulf of Guinea, also western North Atlantic, western Indian Ocean and South China Sea.
Species 1.
Recent revision: Marshall (1973—western North Atlantic).
Species of this genus in the program:
Odontomacrurus murrayi