''Scopelogadus beanii'', or Bean's bigscale, is a species of

ridgehead Ridgeheads, also known as bigscales, are a family (Melamphaidae, from the Greek ''melanos'' lackand ''amphi'' y both sides of small, deep-sea stephanoberyciform fish. The family contains approximately 37 species in five genera; their distribut ...

fish. It is named for

Tarleton Hoffman Bean Tarleton Hoffman Bean (October 8, 1846 – December 28, 1916) was an American ichthyologist. Biography and education Tarleton Hoffman Bean was born to George Bean and Mary Smith Bean in Bainbridge, Pennsylvania, on October 8, 1846. He attended ...

Description

Bean's bigscale is dark brown or black in colour, with a maximum length of . It is one of the largest and deepest-dwelling ridgeheads. It has two dorsal spines, one anal spine, 10–11 dorsal

soft rays Fish anatomy is the study of the form or morphology of fish. It can be contrasted with fish physiology, which is the study of how the component parts of fish function together in the living fish. In practice, fish anatomy and fish physiology co ...

and 7–9 anal soft rays. Its caudal peduncle (the tapered region behind the dorsal and anal fins where the

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

attaches to the body) is long. It has ridges of thin bones supporting deep mucous cavities on the head. Scopelogadus beanii scales

Habitat

Bean's bigscale is

mesopelagic The mesopelagic zone (Greek μέσον, middle), also known as the middle pelagic or twilight zone, is the part of the pelagic zone that lies between the photic epipelagic and the aphotic bathypelagic zones. It is defined by light, and begins ...

and bathypelagic, living at depths of up to , and is common in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

and

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...

Behaviour

''Scopelogadus beanii'' feeds on

amphipod Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class (biology), class of generally marine invertebrate, marine annelid worms, common name, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that ...

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...

and

mysid Mysida is an order of small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the malacostracan superorder Peracarida. Their common name opossum shrimps stems from the presence of a brood pouch or "marsupium" in females. The fact that the larvae are reared in thi ...

References

Melamphaidae Fish described in 1887 Taxa named by Albert Günther {{Rayfinned-fish-stub