Samoa sawtooth eel: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 12:40, 14 March 2006
| Sawtooth Eel | |
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| Species: | S. samoensis
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| Binomial name | |
| Serrivomer samoensis Bauchot, 1959
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The Sawtooth Eel (Serrivomer samoensis) is a longneck eel of the genus Serrivomer, found in the south west Pacific at depths between 500 and 2,000 metres. Their length is up to 75 centimetres.
The Sawtooth Eel is snake-like but very thin with a maximum depth of only 1.5 centimetres. The jaws are thin and extend forward to a fine point with a saw-like row of large vomerine teeth on the roof of the mouth that are used to grip small prey animals.
Young specimens are silvery, and become silvery-black as they increase in size.
Sawtooth Eels live in the unlit mid oceanic depths and very little is known about them. Specimens trawled are usually badly damaged, due to their delicate structure.
References
- Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Serrivomer samoensis". FishBase. January 2006 version.
- Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand, (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 0-00-216987-8