Common Dentex

Body oval, rather deep and compressed. Head profile smoothly rounded in adults but almost straight in young; a slight frontal hump in very large individuals; eye small, suborbital space wide. Cheeks scaly; scales also present on preopercle except at its posterior margin. Mouth low, slightly oblique. Several rows of canine-like teeth, outer row by far the strongest with 4 to 6 very well developed anterior teeth in each jaw. Gillrakers on first arch 9 or 10 lower and 8 or 9 upper. Dorsal fin with 11 spines and 11 or 12 soft rays, the spines increassing in length from the first to the fouth or fifth and subequal thereafter. Anal fin with 3 spines and 7 to 9 soft rays. Scales along lateral line 62 to 68. Colour in the young specimens greyish, spotted with black on back and upper sides, becoming pink with sexual maturity; old individuals are bluish grey and the dark spots become more or less diffuse with age. Some individuals have a yellow tinge behind the mouth and on the gill cover.

Mediterranean, most common south of 40° N (Spain, North Africa); Black Sea (very rare). Atlantic from Bay of Biscay to Cape Blanc and Madeira, exceptionally to British Isles. Elsewhere, southward to Senegal.

Maximum 100 cm; common to 50 cm

Benthopelagic (demersal behaviour).Inshore waters on rocky bottoms to 200 m, more common between 15 and 50 m. Young gregarious, the oldest solitary. Reproduction May (Mediterranean); gonochoric, some specimens hermaphroditic Carnivorous, young panktonophagous, adults eating fish, crustaceans and cephalopods.

Caught with bottom trawls, lines, traps (young) and sometimes trammel nets. Flesh highly esteemed. Marketed fesh or frozen; also used for fishmeal and oil.