Barbourisia rufa
No common name
NS
GNR
Collection Details
Specimens
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Taxonomic Hierarchy
Barbourisiidae (Velvet Whalefish)
Barbourisia
Barbourisia rufa
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
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Characters
Relatively stout bodied and slightly compressed, with small eyes, large head, and posteriorly located dorsal and anal fins. Gill rakers on first arch number 5 or 6 on epibranch and 14 to 16 on lower limb. Head length is 32.9% to 35.6%, snout length is 11.2% to 11.7%, upper jaw length is 24% to 25.6%, lower jaw length is 23% to 28%, orbit diameter is 3.4% to 4%, interorbital width is 12.5%, snout to dorsal fin origin is 59.9% to 64%, length of dorsal fin base is 24% to 27%, snout to anal fin origin is 69% to 70.4%, and length of anal fin is 17.8% to 18% of SL. Pectoral fin has 13 or 14, dorsal fin has 19 to 22, pelvic fin has 6, and anal fin has 15 to 18 rays. Lateral line pores number 28 to 33.
Color is bright red, with eye, operculum, and visceral cavity violet in life and unpigmented in preservative.
Distribution
Off the southeastern United States and in the northern Gulf of Mexico
In the northern Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Mesopelagic and bathypelagic depths between 329 and 1,000 m
Biology
Maximum known size is 330 mm SL
Juveniles mesopelagic, adults benthopelagic. Presumably feed on crustaceans.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2014-07-07.
Phylogeny and Morphologically Similar Fishes
Distinguished from other species of the order by the combination of characters described
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: of no interest.
References
Parr 1945
Struhsaker 1965
Rass 1971
Fitch 1979
Paxton and Bray 1986
Tolley et al. 1989
Paxton, J.R. and D.J. Bray (1986) Barbourisiidae. p. 434. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Paxton, J.R. and D.J. Blake (1990) Barbourisiidae. p. 606. In J.C. Quero, J.C. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post and L. Saldanha (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon, SEI, Paris; and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 2.
Scott, W.B. and M.G. Scott (1988) Atlantic fishes of Canada. Can. Bull. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 219:731 p.
Russian Academy of Sciences (2000) Catalog of vertebrates of Kamchatka and adjacent waters. Kamchatsky Pechatny Dvor, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia. 166 p.
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