Pointy-nosed blue chimaera
species of fish
The pointy-nosed blue chimaera (Hydrolagus trolli), also known as the pointy-nosed blue ratfish, Ray Troll's chimaera or abyssal ghostshark, is a species of deep-sea fish in the family Chimaeridae.
Etymology
The specific name trolli honors Ray Troll, an American artist who has featured chimaeras in his art.
Distribution and habitat
This species is found in the Pacific and Southern Oceans, with records from near New Caledonia, New Zealand, and southern Australia; records from South Africa refer to other species. It is a deep-water species that has been recorded on deep continental and insular slopes at depths between 610 and 2,000 metres (2,000 and 6,560 ft), but more commonly below 1,000 metres (3,300 ft).
Specimens provisionally assigned to this species have also been seen in waters near California and Hawaii, alive, in 2009. As with many other deep-sea species, its distribution likely covers much of the globe, but is poorly known. However, this species of Chimaeridae was the first to have been captured on film, leading to further insight on it.
Description
The body has distinctive blue-gray coloration. A dark line is seen around the orbit, as well as dark shadowing along edges of lateral line canals. The snout is pointed.
“Pointy-nosed blue chimaera” enters the record as species of fish. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pointy-nosed, blue and chimaera can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1610536. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pointy-nosed blue chimaera” 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.