The arrowtooth grenadier (Ventrifossa atherodon) is a species of rattail

Rattail

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

. This is a deep-water fish found at depths of up to 950 m. It was originally recorded from the waters around Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 but has recently also been recorded near Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, which suggests it has a far wider distribution than previously thought.

This species reaches a length of 31 cm. As suggested by the common name, it has distinctive dentition, the outer row of premaxilla

Premaxilla

The incisive bone is the portion of the maxilla adjacent to the incisors. It is a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the jaws of many animals, usually bearing teeth, but not always. They are connected to the maxilla and the nasals....

ry teeth enlarged and recurved with arrow-shaped points. It can also be distinguished by a distinctive black pattern on the head and a uniformly dark first dorsal fin

Dorsal fin

A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...

.