''Barbantus curvifrons'', commonly known as the palebelly searsid, is a species of

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

known from the

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 ...

, the

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 ...

and the eastern

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 ...

where it has been found at depths below . The generic name ''Barbantus'' is derived from the Latin, "barba", a beard.

Description

This species has a moderately elongate and laterally compressed body. The lower jaw has a short sideways-projecting spine on either side near the tip. The dorsal fin has 15 to 21 soft rays and the anal fin has 14 to 17. The small pelvic fins are at the midpoint of the body, the origin of the dorsal fin is slightly behind this and the origin of the anal fin is below the centre of the dorsal fin. This fish is a uniformly dark colour except for a row of light-coloured, opalescent scales along the belly. It grows to a maximum length of SL, but is a more normal size.

Distribution and habitat

''Barbantus curvifrons'' has a wide distribution. Its range includes subtropical and tropical waters in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and temperate, subtropical and tropical waters in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, from the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

southwards to Angola; it is absent from the western Atlantic. It is generally a

bathypelagic The bathypelagic zone or bathyal zone (from Greek βαθύς (bathýs), deep) is the part of the open ocean that extends from a depth of below the ocean surface. It lies between the mesopelagic above, and the abyssopelagic below. The bathypelagic ...

species, occurring at depths greater than ; its occasional capture between is indicative of a pattern of diurnal vertical migration. In a particularly warm period between 1996 and 2005, it was found at off the coast of Greenland, well to the north of its normal range.

Status

''Barbantus curvifrons'' has a widespread distribution but does not seem to be a common species. It is not of interest to fisheries and lives at such great depths that it is likely to face few threats, so the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3267452 Platytroctidae Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fish of the Indian Ocean Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish described in 1931 Taxa named by Fernand Angel Taxa named by Louis Roule