Bathylutichthys a genus of marine ray-finned fishes which is the only genus in the monotypic family Bathylutichthyidae, known as the Antarctic sculpins. These fishes are found in the Southern Ocean.
Bathylutichthys was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1990 by the Russian ichthyologists Arkady Vladimirovich Balushkin and Olga Stepanovna Voskoboinikova when they described Bathylutichthys taranetzi from off South Georgia. A second species, Bathylutichthys balushkini was described by Voskoboinikova from the Meteor Shoal in the southeastern Atlantic. The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies the genus in the monotypic family Bathylutichthyidae,[1] other authorities place the genus in the subfamily Psychrolutinae in the family Psychrolutidae. Phylogenetically the taxon has been argued to be intermediate between the Psychrolutidae and the two families making up the superfamily Cyclopteroidea, meaning that those two families would not be supported as a superfamily within the Cottoidei.[2]
There are currently 2 recognized species in this genus:
Bathylutichthys sculpins have naked, scaleless bodies. The space between the eyes is broad. There is a pair of long barbels on the lower jaw at the corner of the mouth> They have one dorsal fin with the anterior part embedded under theskin. This fin has with 13 spines and 28 soft rays while the anal fin is supported by 36 soft rays. The pelvic fin contains 3 soft rays. All the soft rays in the fins are simple. There are no teeth on the roof of the mouth.[1]