Kaup's arrowtooth eel
Synaphobranchus kaupii Johnson, 1862
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.
Synaphobranchus kaupii
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Open encyclopedia reference
The Kaup's arrowtooth eel (Synaphobranchus kaupii), also known as the Kaup's cut-throat eel, the Gray's cutthroat, the Longnosed eel, the Northern cutthroat eel, or the Slatjaw cutthroat eel) is an eel in the family Synaphobranchidae (cutthroat eels). It was described by James Yate Johnson in 1862. It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the Indo-Western Pacific and eastern and western Atlantic Ocean, including the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Cape Verde, the Western Sahara, Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa, Greenland, France, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Philippines, Portugal, Spain, the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Japan, Australia, Mauritania, Morocco, and Hawaii. It dwells at a depth range of 120 to 4,800 metres (390 to 15,750 ft), most often between 400 and 2,200 metres (1,300 and 7,200 ft), and inhabits the upper abyssal zone on the continental slope. It is intolerant of the temperatures of higher waters. Males can reach a maximum total length of 100 centimetres (39 in). The common name and species epithet "kaupii" refer to naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup.
Wikipedia contributors, Kaup's arrowtooth eel; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T09:37:16.048310+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Synaphobranchus kaupii Johnson, 1862
- Name authority
- Johnson, 1862
- Common name
- Kaup's arrowtooth eel
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Anguilliformes
- Family
- Synaphobranchidae
- Genus
- Synaphobranchus
- 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
- familySynaphobranchidae Johnson, 1862
- subfamilySynaphobranchinae Johnson, 1862
- genusSynaphobranchus Johnson, 1862
- speciesSynaphobranchus kaupii Johnson, 1862
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Synaphobranchus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Synaphobranchus brevidorsalis Günther, 1887 | SynaphobranchidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Synaphobranchus calvus Melo, 2007 | SynaphobranchidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Synaphobranchus dolichorhynchus (Lea, 1913) | SynaphobranchidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Synaphobranchus oregoni Castle, 1960 | SynaphobranchidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Synaphobranchus oligolepis Ho, Hong & Chen, 2018 | SynaphobranchidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Synaphobranchus pinnatus | SynaphobranchidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| grey cutthroat eelSynaphobranchus affinis Günther, 1877 | SynaphobranchidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Nettophichthys retropinnatus Holt, 1891 Holt, 1891 | synonym |
| Synaphobranchus kaupi Johnson, 1862 Johnson, 1862 | 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.
- Johnson, J. Y. (1862). Descriptions of some new genera and species of fishes obtained at Madeira. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1862, (pt 2) (art. 2) : 167–180, Pls. 22–23. 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:53TQS. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.