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Stoplight Loosejaw
Malacosteus niger Ayres, 1848
Above and below: A 13 cm long loosejaw (identified as Malacosteus sp) trawled during the NORFANZ expedition at a depth between 1051 m and 1320 m in New Zealand waters, May 2003. Photo: R. McPhee © NORFANZ. View larger image.
The Stoplight Loosejaw is an elongate, compressed fish. Its jaws are much longer than the skull. There is a comma-shaped photophore under the eye and a circular photophore behind the eye. In life, these photophores are red and green respectively. The head and body are black.
This species grows to 24 cm in length.
It occurs in bathypelagic and mesopelagic temperate waters of the Atlantic and Indo-West Pacific.
In Australia it is known from off New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
Related links
- View the NORFANZ expedition page
- View the deepsea fishes list
Further reading
- Gomon, M.F. & E.M. Robertson in Gomon, M.F., Glover, C.J.M. & R.H. Kuiter (Eds). 1994. The Fishes of Australia's South Coast. State Print, Adelaide. Pp. 992.
- Harold, A.S. 1999. Malacosteidae. in Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem (Eds). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 3. Batoid fishes, chimaeras and bony fishes part 1 (Elopidae to Linophrynidae). FAO, Rome. Pp. iii-vi, 1398-2068.
- Paxton, J.R., D.F. Hoese, G.R. Allen & J.E. Hanley. 1989. Zoological Catalogue of Australia Vol. 7 Pisces Petromyzontidae to Carangidae. Canberra: Australian Biological Resources Survey. Pp. i-xii, 1-665.
