Sawtooth eels are a family, Serrivomeridae, of
eel
Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...
s found in temperate and tropical seas worldwide.
Sawtooth eels get their name from the human-like arrangement of inward-slanting teeth attached to the
vomer bone
The vomer (; lat, vomer, lit=ploughshare) is one of the unpaired facial bones of the skull. It is located in the midsagittal line, and articulates with the sphenoid, the ethmoid, the left and right palatine bones, and the left and right maxil ...
in the roof of the mouth. They are deepwater
pelagic fish
Pelagic fish live in the pelagic zone of ocean or lake waters—being neither close to the bottom nor near the shore—in contrast with demersal fish that do live on or near the bottom, and reef fish that are associated with coral reef ...
.
Species
The 11 species are found in these two genera:
Family Serrivomeridae
* Genus ''
Serrivomer
''Serrivomer'' is a genus of deep-sea eel in the family Serrivomeridae. It contains ten described species. Member species are distributed widely, being found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. The smallest species in this genus is ''Serr ...
''
* Genus ''
Stemonidium
''Stemonidium hypomelas'' is a species of deep-sea eel in the family Serrivomeridae, originally described from a 171-mm specimen taken from a depth of around 1,000 m near Niihau Island, Hawaii in 1902. It can be distinguished from the related saw ...
''
References
*
{{Anguilliformes-stub