Author: Goode and Bean, 1879
Alepocephalus bairdii Goode and Bean, 1879
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Alepocephalus bairdii Goode and Bean, 1879 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: a large species, body quite elongate, moderately compressed, its greatest depth above pectoral fins. Head large, much greater than body depth; eye larger than snout, its hind margin before midpoint of head; tip of upper jaw reaching to below pupil; gillrakers 8-9 + 1 + 16-17 = 26-27. Pyloric caeca 14-18. Dorsal finrays 18-22, pectoral finrays 10-13, pelvic finrays 7-9, anal finrays 21-25, its origin about opposite dorsal fin origin. Scales small, 62-70 in lateral line. Colour: purplish-brown. Size: to 100 cm.
Habitat: engybenthic over ooze and sand bottoms at about 650-1,700 m, sometimes shallower (365 m in western North Atlantic); gregarious. Food: mostly coelenterates, but also decapods, tunicates, fishes. Reproduction: ovarian eggs reported to 4.5 mm in diameter.
Distribution: off Madeira and Morocco northward to Iceland and Greenland, but not North Sea or Norwegian coasts. Elsewhere, southward to 17 N, also western Atlantic, from Greenland to Grand Banks and 29° 52' N, 77° 09' W (unpublished record).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Holt and Byrne, 1908: 37.
Otoliths (sagitta). Schmidt, 1968: 9, pl. 14.