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Stareater (fish)

Genus of fishes

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Snaggletooths or stareaters are any of a number of small, deep-sea stomiid fish in the genus Astronesthes. They possess a bioluminescent red chin barbel that the fish use as a lure to attract small prey into striking distance.

The fish have delicate skin, and mouths filled with sharp, needlelike, curved teeth.

01Species

There are currently 48 recognized species in this genus:

The only potential fossil species of this genus is ?Astronesthes simus Arambourg, 1967 from the Late Eocene or Early Oligocene-aged Pabdeh Formation of Iran. However, its taxonomic assignment to this genus is uncertain. Remains from the Middle Eocene of Georgia previously assigned to this genus are now placed in their own genus, Azemiolestes.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Stareater (fish), written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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