Big Eye Chimaera

This species is distinguished by the following set of characters: slender body; short and bluntly rounded snout; relatively short head (HDL 24.2-24.5% BDL); relatively large eyes (EYL 30.9-34.2% HDL); oral and preopercular lateral line canals sharing a short common branch from the infraorbital canal; relatively large pectoral fins (P1A 36.5-40.8% BDL), extending posterior to the insertion of pelvic fins; trunk's lateral line canal without sinusoidal undulations; the anterior and posterior regions of second dorsal fin considerably taller than middle region; no anal fin; tail region elongate and slender (PCA 58.3-59.9% BDL); caudal-fin axis horizontal with the fin nearly symmetrical, epaxial and hypaxial lobes equal sized; coloration uniform brown across entire body, no white markings and bluish fins (Ref. 97389).

Oviparous (Ref. 205).

Oviparous (Ref. 205). Eggs are encased in horny shells (Ref. 205).

The bigeye chimaera (Hydrolagus macrophthalmus) is a species of fish in the family Chimaeridae. It is found in Chile and possibly Ecuador. Its natural habitat is open seas. It is only known from the preabyssal zone off Valparaiso, and may occur as far south as Valdivia and as far north as the Galápagos Islands and Nicaragua and Guatemala, so may be more widespread, but species research is not abundant.