The giant grenadier, Albatrossia pectoralis , is a very large rattail

Rattail

Grenadiers or rattails are generally large, brown to black gadiform marine fish of the family Macrouridae...

, the only member

Monotypic

In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...

 of the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Albatrossia, found in the north Pacific from northern Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 to the Okhotsk and Bering

Bering Sea

The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....

 seas, east to the Gulf of Alaska

Gulf of Alaska

The Gulf of Alaska is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, where Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage are found.The entire shoreline of the Gulf is...

, and south to northern Baja California

Baja California

Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...

 in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, at depths of between 140 and 3,500 m. Its length is up to 2.1 m. The giant grenadier has the usual greatly elongated pointed tail of the rattails.

Ecology

Giant grenadiers are apex predators on the upper continental slopes of the northern Pacific. Their main prey items are Octopoteuthis deletron

Octopoteuthis deletron

Octopoteuthis deletron is a species of squid in the genus Octopoteuthis. Found at depths of 400 to 800 m in the Pacific Ocean, they grow to at least 24 cm. Males find it difficult to detect the gender of other individuals they encounter in the dark depths, so they have adopted a strategy of...

squid and Vampyroteuthis infernalis vampire squid.

External links

• Giant Grenadier – More info about the Giant Grenadier