''Ophidion zavalai'' is a species of

cusk-eel The cusk-eel family, Ophidiidae, is a group of marine bony fishes in the Ophidiiformes order. The scientific name is from the Greek ''ophis'' meaning "snake", and refers to their eel-like appearance. True eels, however, diverged from other ra ...

from the

Ophidiidae The cusk-eel family, Ophidiidae, is a group of marine bony fishes in the Ophidiiformes order. The scientific name is from the Greek ''ophis'' meaning "snake", and refers to their eel-like appearance. True eels, however, diverged from other ray ...

family. It was discovered through

taxonomic revision In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are give ...

s of the band cusk-eel ''(Ophidion holbrookii)'' on the coast of , where its

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

is given. It occurs on soft bottoms off the eastern to southeastern coast of Brazil. ''Ophidion zavalai'' is an elongate fish with moderately compressed body and tapering tail. It can grow to

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

Etymology

The fish is named in honor of Peruvian-born Brazilian ichthyologist Luis Alberto Zavala-Camin (1938-2023), a researcher at the Instituto de Pesca, in

São Paulo, Brazil SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U. ...

, and a professor at the Universidade Santa Cecília in Santos, Brazil, for his contribution to the knowledge of marine fishes in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

References

Ophidion (fish) Endemic fish of Brazil Fish of the Western Atlantic Taxa named by Matheus Marcos Rotundo Taxa named by Rodrigo Atunes Caires Taxa named by Claudio Oliveira (scientist) Taxa named by Mariana Kuranaka Taxa named by Jessé Miranda de Figueiredo-Filho Taxa named by Alexandre Pires Marceniuk Fish described in 2023 {{Ophidiidae-stub