ANIMAL SPECIES:Stoplight Loosejaw, Malacosteus niger Ayres, 1848
The Stoplight Loosejaw is an elongate, compressed fish. Its jaws are much longer than the skull. There is a comma-shaped photophore under the eye and a circular photophore behind the eye. In life, these photophores are red and green respectively. The head and body are black.
Identification
The Stoplight Loosejaw is an elongate, compressed fish. Its jaws are much longer than the skull. There is a comma-shaped photophore under the eye and a circular photophore behind the eye. In life, these photophores are red and green respectively. The head and body are black.
Size range
The species grows to 24 cm in length.Distribution
It occurs in the Atlantic and Indo-West Pacific.
In Australia it is known from off New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia
Habitat
It occurs in bathypelagic and mesopelagic depths.
Classification
- Species:
- niger
- Genus:
- Malacosteus
- Family:
- Malacosteidae
- Class:
- Actinopterygii
- Subphylum:
- Vertebrata
- Phylum:
- Chordata
- Kingdom:
- Animalia
References
- Gomon, M.F. & E.M. Robertson in Gomon, M.F., Glover, C.J.M. & R.H. Kuiter (Eds). 1994. The Fishes of Australia's South Coast. State Print, Adelaide. Pp. 992.
- Harold, A.S. 1999. Malacosteidae. in Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem (Eds). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 3. Batoid fishes, chimaeras and bony fishes part 1 (Elopidae to Linophrynidae). FAO, Rome. Pp. iii-vi, 1398-2068.
- Paxton, J.R., D.F. Hoese, G.R. Allen & J.E. Hanley. 1989. Zoological Catalogue of Australia Vol. 7 Pisces Petromyzontidae to Carangidae. Canberra: Australian Biological Resources Survey. Pp. i-xii, 1-665.
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