narrownecked oceanic eel
Derichthys serpentinus Gill, 1884
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
A specimen of Derichthys serpentinus, freshly caught aboard the RV Celtic Explorer in the North Atlantic, before and after a large decapod prey item was removed from the stomach.
HulloThere · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The narrownecked oceanic eel, Derichthys serpentinus, is a longneck eel, the only species in the genus Derichthys, found in all oceans in depths between 500 and 2,000 m. Their length is up to 40 centimetres (1 ft 4 in).
The skin is scaleless and red-brown. It lives on the bottom at great depths.
Wikipedia contributors, Narrownecked oceanic eel; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:00:42.541631+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Derichthys serpentinus Gill, 1884
- Name authority
- Gill, 1884
- Common name
- narrownecked oceanic eel
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Anguilliformes
- Family
- Derichthyidae
- Genus
- Derichthys
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderAnguilliformes
- familyDerichthyidae Gill, 1884
- genusDerichthys Gill, 1884
- speciesDerichthys serpentinus Gill, 1884
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Derichthys iselini Borodin, 1929 Borodin, 1929 | synonym |
| Derichthys kempi (Norman, 1930) (Norman, 1930) | synonym |
| Leptocephalus anguilloides Schmidt, 1916 Schmidt, 1916 | synonym |
| Derichtys iselini Borodin, 1929 Borodin, 1929 | synonym |
| Grammatocephalus kempi Norman, 1930 Norman, 1930 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- Gill, T. N. (1884). Three new families of fishes added to the deep-sea fauna in a year. American Naturalist, v. 18 (no. 4): 433. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:34WH8. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.