The thinlip splitfin (''Kaperangus microlepis'') is a species of

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

in the family

Synagropidae Synagropidae is a small family of ray-finned fishes, sometimes known as the splitfin ocean-basses, in the order Acropomatiformes. Its members were formerly included in the lanternbelly family Acropomatidae. Genera The following genera are incl ...

. It lives around Africa's Atlantic coast at a depth of 50–500 m and can grow up to 16.5 cm long.

Distribution

The thinlip splitfin can be found in the Eastern Atlantic from

Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

, including the

Cape Verde Islands Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

Description

The thinlip splitfin is dark brownish above and paler below. It has 10 dorsal spines, 9 dorsal soft rays, 2 anal spines, and 9 anal soft rays. It attains a maximum size of

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

, reaching sexual maturity at a total length of .

Habitat and biology

The thinlip splitfin is a bathypelagic fish which occurs near muddy bottoms at depths of . It is a predator of

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s such as euphasiids,

mysid Mysida is an order of small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the malacostracan superorder Peracarida. Their common name opossum shrimps stems from the presence of a brood pouch or "marsupium" in females. The fact that the larvae are reared in thi ...

s and

decapods The Decapoda or decapods, from Ancient Greek δεκάς (''dekás''), meaning "ten", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a large order (biology), order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, and includes crabs, lobsters, crayfis ...

as well as fish and

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan Taxonomic rank, class Cephalopoda (Greek language, Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral symm ...

s. The species from the family Acropomatidae form loose aggregations normally near the bottom and some of them undertake a nocturnal migration towards the surface of the sea. The highest biomass density was recorded during a survey using a bottom trawl over the upper continental slope off of Angola. It is known to be an important component of the diet of the

hake Hake is the common name for fish in the Merlucciidae family of the northern and southern oceans and the Phycidae family of the northern oceans. Hake is a commercially important fish in the same taxonomic order, Gadiformes, as cod and haddo ...

Merluccius senegalensis ''Merluccius senegalensis'', the Senegalese hake, is a species of fish from the family Merlucciidae, the true hakes. It is found in the sub tropical waters of the eastern Atlantic Ocean off the north western coast of Africa. Description ''Merluc ...

'' in the waters off of

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

Taxonomy

''Kaperangus microlepis'' was originally formally described in 1935 as ''Synagrops microlepis'' by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

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 ...

John Roxborough Norman John Roxborough Norman (1898, Wandsworth, London – 26 May 1944, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire) was an English ichthyologist. He started as a clerk in a bank. His lifetime affliction with rheumatic fever began during his military service during the ...

(1898-1944) with the type locality given as "Off St. Paul de Loanda, Angola". In 2017 it was placed in the

monotypic 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 "unisp ...

genus ''Kaperangus''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2608152 Synagropidae Taxa named by John Roxborough Norman Fish described in 1935 Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN