Cutthroat eels are a family, Synaphobranchidae, of
eels, the only members of the suborder Synaphobranchoidei. They are found worldwide in temperate and tropical seas.
Cutthroat eels range from in length. They are
bottom-dwelling fish, found in deep waters down to about .
They are distinguished by the presence of telescopic eyes in the
larva
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
Th ...
e. In some classifications (for example,
ITIS
The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is an American partnership of federal agencies designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. ITIS was originally formed in 1996 as an interagenc ...
), this family is split, with ''
Simenchelys
The snubnosed eel, ''Simenchelys parasitica'', also known as the pug-nosed eel, slime eel, or snub-nose parasitic eel, is a species of deep-sea eel and the only member of its genus. Some authors classify it as the sole member of the subfamily Sim ...
'' in its own family, the Simenchelyidae.
References
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{{anguilliformes-stub