Dasyscopelus asper
species of fish
Dasyscopelus asper, previously Myctophum asperum, common name the prickly lanternfish, is a species of deep sea fish in the family Myctophidae, the "lanternfish".
Description
This species has large eyes and grows to a maximum total length of approximately 8.5 cm (3.3 in).
Distribution
Dasyscopelus asper is found in the following regions:
Western Atlantic Ocean from 20° north to Brazil, and also occurs in the Gulf of Mexico.
Eastern Atlantic Ocean, occurring from Mauritania to South Africa in the Agulhas water pockets.
Northwest Atlantic near Canada.
Indo-Pacific in the following currents:
North and south equatorial currents
Equatorial countercurrents
East Australian and Agulhas currents
Eastern Central Pacific.
South China Sea and East China Sea
Larvae have also been found in the Taiwan Strait.
Habitat
This species is found at depths of between 425 and 750 metres during the day. At night it can ascend to depths of 125 metres to feed on plankton.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Dasyscopelus asper” as species of fish. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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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.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1038904. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dasyscopelus asper” 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.