Author: Pellegrin, 1913
Panturichthys mauritanicus Pellegrin, 1913
Diagnosis: body very elongate; trunk very short, its length about half of head length, its depth longer than mouth length; eye minute, placed over midpoint of upper jaw; lips well developed. Teeth conical on both jaws; maxillae with 2 or 3 rows anteriorly,1 posteriorly; vomer with granular teeth, bi- or multiserial on median part and uniserial anteriorly and posteriorly; dentary with 2 rows anteriorly, three posteriorly. Gill openings well separated, latero-ventral. Dorsal and anal fins confluent with caudal fin; dorsal fin origin about over gill opening; pectoral and pelvic fins absent. Vertebrae: total 164- 176; abdominal 54-58. Colour: brownish dorsally, grey below; end of tail blackish (preserved specimens). Size: to 84 cm.
Habitat: benthic on the continental shelf on muddy substrates at 20-50 m. Food: small annelids and bivalves, crustaceans. Reproduction: spawning at beginning of warm hydrological season; larvae described by Castle (1966, 1970) as Leptocephalus Taenioconger longissimus (Gunther, 1870) were later identified as the leptocephali of Panturichthys mauritanicus by Blache (1972).
Distribution: eastern Atlantic (Morocco). Elsewhere, southward to Senegal.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Blache, 1977: 81 (leptocephali).
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.