The head is the point, and it is the reason for the name: broad, heavy, and flattened on top, out of proportion to a body that is otherwise a thin brown rope.
For an animal that makes its living by pushing into gaps, the head is the tool that goes first. It has to be wide enough to hold a working set of jaws and a decent bite, strong enough to shove rubble aside, and flat enough to enter a crack that the body can then follow through. Everything behind it is essentially a means of pushing it forward.
That is a different design from a moray that hunts from a hole. Those animals wait at an entrance and strike outward, and the head is a trap. This one carries the fight to the inside of the reef, into the spaces where small fish and shrimp sleep, and the head is a wedge with teeth.
It lives shallow, in coral rubble in the top ten meters or so, and like the rest of its group it is listed as rare mostly because nobody can find it.
The genus. Uropterygius Rüppell 1838 - uro (tail). ETYFish
The species. Uropterygius macrocephalus (Bleeker 1864) - big-headed from makrós (μακρός). ETYFish
- head noticeably large and broad for the body, slightly flattened on top
- plain brown, sometimes with faint pale speckling
- round body, fins barely visible
- up to 47 cm
Why it's threatened
This species has no major threats affecting it on a universal level, however, it may be affected in isolated areas by habitat degradation and loss.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
