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A Virtual Museum on the State's Fish Biodiversity

Nansenia groenlandica

No common name
NS GNR
Collection Details

Specimens

Photos

There are no photos available for this taxon yet.

Records

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Microstomatidae (Marine Smelts) Nansenia Nansenia groenlandica

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. It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting. When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page. Learn more about our species accounts.

Characters

Elongate, slender, subcylindrical body; short, blunt snout; forked caudal fin; body depth at dorsal fin origin 10-13% TL; prepectoral length 18-22% TL; head length about 18% TL; snout length less than half eye length; maxilla scalelike, mostly covered by preorbital bones; palatine, vomer, and dentaries with short, conical teeth in single row; teeth lacking on premaxilla, maxilla, and tongue; 35-45 gill rakers on first gill arch; 3 branchiostegal rays; pectoral fin with 11-13 rays; dorsal fin with 9-10 rays; pelvic fin with 10-12 rays; anal fin with 8-10 rays; vertebrae 42-45
Brown, with vertical bars on caudal fin of juveniles

Distribution

Western North Atlantic from Greenland, Flemish Cap off Newfoundland, Browns Bank off Nova Scotia, and Gulf of Mexico

Habitat Associations

Mesopelagic, between 300 and 1,000 m

Biology

Maximum known size 245 mm TL
Spawns in spring and summer in eastern Atlantic; smallest larvae captured in water 8-10 m deep
Spawns mainly in spring and early summer.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2018-10-09.

Phylogeny and Morphologically Similar Fishes

Distinguished from other family members by combination of characters

References

Cohen 1958b
Cohen 1964a
Cohen 1984a
Ahlstrom et al. 1984
Scott and Scott 1988
Cohen, D.M. (1984) Argentinidae (including Microstomatidae). p. 386-391. In P.J.P. Whitehead, M.-L. Bauchot, J.-C. Hureau, J. Nielsen and E. Tortonese (eds.) Fishes of the north-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Volume 1. Unesco, Paris.
Kawaguchi, K. and J.L. Butler (1984) Fishes of the genus Nansenia (Microsomatidae) with descriptions of seven new species. Los Angeles County Mus. Contr. Sci. 352:1-22.
Bigelow, H.B., D.M. Cohen, M.M. Dick, R.H. Gibbs Jr., M. Grey, J.E. Morrow Jr., L.P. Schultz and V. Walters (1964) Fishes of the western North Atlantic. Part four. New Haven, Sears Found. Mar. Res., Yale Univ.

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