Author: Vaillant, 1888
Bathysolea profundicola Vaillant, 1888
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Bathysolea profundicola (Vaillant, 1888) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body oval, but elongate. Upper eye less than its own diameter from dorsal profile of head; anterior nostril on blind side not enlarged, its distance from front margin of head about 1.5 times in its distance from cleft of mouth; anterior nostril on eyed side with a backward-pointing tube, not reaching to vertical through front border of lower eye. Dorsal fin beginning before vertical through front border of upper eye, with 75-89 finrays; pectoral fin on eyed side small, with 4-5 simple finrays (some bifid), on blind side reduced to 1-2 finrays; anal finrays 61-71; caudal fin broadly united to last dorsal and anal finrays (which are half length of preceding finrays). Lateral line with 112-127 pored scales, the supra-temporal branch indistinct, forming an S-shape, the ascending part directed backward; scales rectangular, intercanalicular striae of Solea type (Fig. 2 in family diagnosis). Colour: eyed side grey/brown, blind side yellow/brown; dorsal, anal and caudal fins dark brown. Size: to at least 21 cm SL.
Habitat: demersal on muddy bottoms of continental slope, at depth of 200-1,300 m. Food: mainly polychaetes and also some amphipods. Reproduction: reproductive period stretched with a maximum during winter and early spring. (Tyrrhenian Sea).
Distribution: eastern Atlantic (southward from south-western Ireland) also Mediterranean (Algeria, Sicily, Corsica). Elsewhere, southward to Angola.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. No data.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.