Dentex is a
genus of marine
ray-finned fishes belonging to the
familySparidae, which includes the seabreams and porgies. The fishes in this genus are found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the eastern Indian and Western Pacific Oceans.
Dentex seabreams are characterised within the Sparidae by the possession of a series of sharp conical teeth in each jaw, 4 in the upper jaw and 6 in the lower jaw , These teeth are enlarged and
canine-like and they have no
molar-like teeth. The scales between the eyes extend to near a level with the front part of the orbit. The flange on the
preoperculum is completely covered in scales.[3] The largest species in the genus is the pink dentex (D. gibbosus) with a maximum published
fork length of 106 cm (42 in) while the smallest is D. fourmanoiri which has a maximum published
standard length of 21.5 cm (8.5 in).[7]
Distribution
Dentex sea breams are found in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean, from Europe to Namibia, and in the Eastern Indian and Western Pacific Ocean from Japan south to Australia.[7]
^Iwatsuki, Y.; Newman, S.J. & Russell, B.C. (2015). "Dentex carpenteri, a new species of deepwater seabream from Western Australia (Pisces: Sparidae)". Zootaxa. 3957 (1): 109–119.
doi:
10.11646/zootaxa.3957.1.9.