Description: A small to medium-sized fish, with an elongate cylindrical body. Head short, depressed, the upper surface strongly rugose. Has strong jaws with numerous teeth. A single dorsal fin with only soft rays located at about mid-body, behind the insertion of the pelvic fins, and a small adipose fin located above the anal fins. Caudal fin deeply forked. Body grey with yellow, red or brownish tones, with about 8 saddled-like blotches on the dorsal side, which are relatively subtle. Similar to the diamond lizardfish Synodus synodus, but with a lighter and more uniform colouration.
Global Distribution: Eastern Atlantic: Morocco to Cape Verde, including Azores and the Mediterranean. Western Atlantic: Bermuda and the Bahamas to the Lesser Antilles. Primarily in insular waters.
Behavioural ecology: They spend most of the time lying immobile on the bottom, where they go unnoticed due to their mimetic colouration.
Population structure & migrations:
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: FishBase: ? - 400 m, usually ? - 20 m.
Habitat: Demersal, primarily in insular waters, on sand and sand-rock bottoms.
Feeding habits: Almost exclusively piscivorous, feeding mainly on pelagic schooling fishes, such as clupeids, engraulids, myctophids, and juveniles of Sparidae and Centracanthidae. Benthic prey are also consumed but are of secondary importance.
Trophic level: FishBase: 4.5
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Minor commercial species.
Conservation status: Global: Least concern.
Europe: Least concern.
Nutritional information & food safety:
REFERENCES
Anderson W.W., Gehringer J.W., Berry F.H. (1966). Field Guide to the Synodontidae (Lizardfishes) of the Western Atlantic Ocean. United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries.
Direcção Regional de Pescas, Madeira.
Esposito V., Battaglia P., Castriota L., Finoia M.G., Scotti G., Andaloro F. (2009). Diet of Atlantic lizardfish, Synodus saurus (Linnaeus, 1758)(Pisces: Synodontidae) in the central Mediterranean Sea. Scientia Marina, 73(2): 369-376.
Fischer W., Bianchi G., Scott W.B., eds. (1981). FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. Eastern Central Atlantic; fishing areas 34, 47 (in part). Canada Funds-in-Trust. Ottawa, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, by arrangement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, vol. 4, 316 pp.
González J., Hernández C., Marrero P., Rapp E. (2000). Peces de Canarias: GuÃa Submarina (5th edition). Francisco Lemus Editor, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canarias, Spain, 235 pp.
Hureau J.-C., ed. (1984-1985). Fishes of the North-Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. UNESCO. Accessed through: Marine Species Identification Portal. World Wide Web electronic publication. http://species-identification.org (2014).
IUCN (2014). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. www.iucnredlist.org
Morato T., Afonso P., Lourinho P., Barreiros J.P., Santos R.S., Nash R.D.M. (2001). Length–weight relationships for 21 coastal fish species of the Azores, north-eastern Atlantic. Fisheries Research, 50(3): 297-302.
Nieto A., Ralph G.M., Comeros-Raynal M.T., Kemp J., GarcÃa Criado M., Allen D.J., Dulvy N.K., Walls R.H.L., Russell B., Pollard D., GarcÃa S., Craig M., Collette B.B., Pollom R., Biscoito M., Labbish Chao N., Abella A., Afonso P., Ãlvarez H., Carpenter K.E., Clò S., Cook R., Costa M.J., Delgado J., Dureuil M., Ellis J.R., Farrell E.D., Fernandes P., Florin A-B., Fordham S., Fowle, S., Gil de Sola L., Gil Herrera J., Goodpaster A., Harvey M., Heessen H., Herler J., Jung A., Karmovskaya E., Keskin C., Knudsen S.W., Kobyliansky S., KovaÄić M., Lawson J.M., Lorance P., McCully Phillips S., Munroe T., Nedreaas K., Nielsen J., Papaconstantinou C., Polidoro B., Pollock C.M., Rijnsdorp A.D., Sayer C., Scott J., Serena F., Smith-Vaniz W.F., Soldo A., Stump E., Williams J.T. (2015). Europen Red List of Marine Fishes. IUCN and European Union, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 90 pp.
