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Kaup's arrowtooth eel

species of fish

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ6412374
Source-derived summary

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. The Kaup's arrowtooth eel is preyed on by Coryphaenoides rupestris. Its own diet consists of benthic crustaceans including decapods and amphipods, planktonic crustaceans including euphausiids and mysids, cephalopods including species of Rossia, and bony fish including Macroramphosus scolopax. It is of no commercial interest to fisheries, but it is sometimes caught as by-catch by bottom longline and baited fish traps.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Kaup's arrowtooth eel” as species of fish. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA sound reference starting point where classification, measurement and the date of the underlying evidence remain visible. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1862—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Kaup's, arrowtooth and species can be independently traced.
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Why this record matters

The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of fish. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6412374. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1862.

Critical limits

Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Kaup's arrowtooth eel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.