Description
The snubnosed eel has a long, stout body that is strongly compressed posterior of the vent. The head is thick and cylindrical, with a short, blunt snout. The mouth is distinctive, consisting of a tiny horizontal slit surrounded by strongly plicate lips. The jaws are short and strong, with the premaxillaries and maxillaries fused into a single piece. The jaws are equipped with a single row of small, rounded, close-set teeth; the vomerine teeth are absent. The eyes are small and round; the anterior pair of nostrils are short tubes and the posterior pair are slit-like. The gill openings are small and located below the pectoral fins, which are small and triangular. The dorsal, caudal, and anal fins are merged, the dorsal fin base originating over the tip of the pectoral fins and the anal fin originating behind the vent. The scales are similar in appearance to those of Anguilla and are arranged in a right-angle basketweave pattern. The coloration is gray to grayish brown, becoming darker at the fin margins and along the lateral line. This species attains a length of 61 cm (24 in).
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“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
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