Species: Chaunacops roseus, Northwest Gaper, Rosy Coffin-fish

Chaunacops roseus (Barbour, 1941)

Northwest Gaper, Rosy Coffin-fish

Body rounded, slightly compressed, tapering to a small, rounded tail; head large, globular, cuboid; eyes high on side of head, covered with a clear skin window; mouth large, strongly oblique to ~vertical; teeth small, slender, sharp; gill opening small; dorsal fin in 2 parts: 1st is a single spine modified as an angling lure in a scaleless, oval depression on snout, lure is a dense cluster of short threads like a short mop; soft dorsal on rear of body,11-12; anal fin 0, 6, pressed down rays reaching (or nearly so) end of plate at end of spine column; pectorals behind mid-body, 13 (13-15), a broad fan with a truncate edge; skin very loose, flaccid, densely covered with minute spine-like denticles that are coarse and widely spaced, enlarged in some areas on side of body; skin denticles in 2-4 rows between eye and lateral line on upper head & 6-10 rows between dorsal fin base and lateral line on body; single open lateral line from base of tail fin to head, there with prominent canals, & from chin along lower side of body, relatively few pores: main part on upper head and body ends over pectoral fin, with 9 + 17-21 pores,1 pore on tail fin base.

Top of head and chin rosy red, caudal peduncle paler; belly and lower side violet; gill opening in a red ring; inside mouth and tongue rose and violet; pectorals and pelvics red; tail fin greenish yellow, the front 1/3 of its center red.

Reaches 15 cm

Lives on hard and soft bottoms.

Depth range 900-2691m

Central and western Atlantic; New Foundland to the northern Caribbean.