#bathysaurus

Deepsea Lizardfish (Bathysaurus ferox), family Bathysauridae, Veatch Canyon off the coast of the NE United States

Lizardfish (Bathysaurus)

Have you met the deep-sea lizardfish yet?

We saw this Bathysaurus at a depth of ~1,771 meters (5,810 feet), while exploring one of the largest submarine landslides along the U.S. east coast, Currituck Landslide off the coast of North Carolina, during the final dive of the #Okeanos Windows to the Deep 2018 expedition...

For more from the expedition, visit: 

Highfin lizardfish (Bathysaurus mollis)

Bathysaur or Highfin Lizardfish (Bathysaurus mollis), spotted on seafloor at Davidson Seamount at 2375 m.

The high fin lizardfish gets its name from its lizard-like appearance. In Greek, bathys means deep and sauros means lizard. It can reach up to 80 cm (31 in) long and lives on the seafloor in very deep water (greater than 1500 meters).

MBARI's ROVs have observed them between 2300 and 4000 meters. those two red dots are lasers on the ROV camera housing, used to measure things on the seafloor. The lasers are 29 cm apart. Learn more about the lizardfish on our Deep-sea Guide.

"One of the more strange-looking animals we came across in Veatch Canyon, a bathysaurus. These fish use their lower jaw to scoop in the sand. Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, 2013 Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition. Download high-resolution version (1.2 Mb)."