Author: Bocage and Capello, 1864
Scymnodon ringens Bocage and Capello, 1864
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Scymnodon ringens Barbosa du Bocage and de Brito Capello, 1864 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout short, slightly over half mouth breadth, tapering smoothly from eye to rounded tip; inter-nostril distance approximately equal to distance from snout tip to line between inner corner of nostrils; deep pre-oral clefts extend slightly less than half distance to symphysis, labial furrows two-thirds as long as clefts. Upper teeth erect, lanceolate anteriorly, becoming progressively more oblique and curved outward posteriorly; lower teeth larger, first two curved inward, rest obliquely angled outward, cusps broadly triangular on quadrate base, notch present on outer side of base. Gill-slits relatively long, equal in size. First dorsal fin origin over appressed pectoral fin, spine short, exposed only at tip; second dorsal fin larger than first, free tip produced, extending to origin of upper caudal lobe; caudal fin very broad, tip broadly rounded, with a slight sub-terminal notch; posterior margin straight, lower lobe not differentiated. Denticles without transverse ridges. Colour: brown to black. Size: to 110 cm.
Habitat: benthic to mesopelagic, at 200-700 m. Food: fishes.
Distribution: eastern Atlantic northward from off Madeira and off Spain and Portugal to off Scotland. Elsewhere, from off Senegal.