''Bathyprion'', is a genus of deepwater marine ray-finned fish belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Alepocephalidae Slickheads, also known as nakedheads or smoothheads, are deep water fishes that belong to the family Alepocephalidae. They are most commonly found in the bathypelagic layer, which is approximately 3000m below the surface. They get their name from ...

, the slickheads. Its only extant species is ''Bathyprion danae'', the fangtooth smooth-head. This species is found in the Atlantic and western Pacific Oceans. A fossil specimen of an undescribed ''Bathyprion'' species has been documented from the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

of the Polish

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...

. It is one of the very few fossil slickheads known alongside '' Carpathichthys''.

Taxonomy

''Bathyprion was firs proposed as a

monospecific genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

in 1966 by the British

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Norman Bertram Marshall Norman Bertram Marshall, known as Freddy, (5 February 1915 – 13 February 1996) was a British marine biologist and ichthyologist who was worked at the British Museum (Natural History). His main interests were in the area of deep sea research. Ea ...

when he described ''B. danae''. ''B. danae'' had its type locality given as Australia at 33°26'S, 157°02'E, from a depth of . This genuss is classified in the family Alepocephalidae within the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Alepocephaliformes Alepocephaliformes is an order of marine deep-sea teleost fishes. It was previously classified as the suborder Alepocephaloidei of the order Argentiniformes. As an adaptation to a life in the deep-sea, there is no swim bladder, and the ossifica ...

Etymology

''Bathyprion'' combines ''bathy'', meaning "deep", with ''prion'' which means "saw", and allusion Marshall did not explain but it may refer to the long, sharp teeth on the upper jaw. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''danae'', is a reference to the Danish fishery research vessel '' Dana'', the vessel the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

was collected from in 1929.

Environment

''Bathyprion danae'' is recorded to be found in a marine environment within bathypelagic depth range of about 100 – 3200 meters. They are considered to be a species found in the deep-waters.

Distribution

''Bathyprion danae'' is native to the areas of the Eastern Atlantic, Namibia, the North Atlantic, and the western Pacific. It has been found isolated in the area of Madeira. This species has also been recorded to occupy the areas of the European waters, the North West Atlantic, the Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zone, and the Spanish Exclusive Economic Zone.

Size

''Bathyprion danae'' grows to a length of SL.

Identification

''Bathyprion danae'' can be identified by its slender body and its long, pointed snout. Its upper jaw is longer than its bottom jaw, and it reaches out longer than its eye. The

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

of this species are colorful and there are numerous small scales on its body. Its body has a brownish color to it.

References

Notes

* {{Taxonbar, from1=Q2499987, from2=Q2089541 Alepocephalidae Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Monotypic ray-finned fish genera Fish described in 1966 Deep sea fish Taxa named by Norman Bertram Marshall