Australian mottled moray

Amazing fact

The sawtooth moray has long, tube-shaped front nostrils.

Museums Victoria

Australian mottled moray in its habitat (illustration)

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An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

The sawtooth moray has long, tube-shaped front nostrils.

SourceMuseums Victoria — Fishes of Australia — Sawtooth Moray, Gymnothorax prionodon

THE REAL WORLD

The real Australian mottled moray

Scientific name: Gymnothorax prionodon
Japanese name: ユリウツボ
Group: Ocean animals

Order: Anguilliformes
Family: Muraenidae
Genus: Gymnothorax

Facts about the real animal.

Where the name “Australian mottled moray” comes from

The scientific name prionodon comes from Greek words for saw and tooth. It was named for serrated teeth, but later researchers concluded that it lacks those serrations.

Museums Victoria

A fish that lives in the seas from southern Japan to the South China Sea.

鳥羽水族館 — ユリウツボ

Its dark brown body is marked with pale brown patches arranged like blocks.

鳥羽水族館 — ユリウツボ

How the Australian mottled moray lives

At night, it swims out from behind rocks to look for food. During the day, it hides behind rocks.

新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海

Basic data

Range: Southern Japan to the South China Sea

鳥羽水族館

Where the Australian mottled moray has been recorded

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF

Where it livesJapan Asia Ocean

Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.

Names around the world

日本語: ユリウツボ
简体中文: 锯齿裸胸鳝
繁體中文: 鋸齒裸胸鯙
한국어: 백설곰치
Español: Morena moteada australiana
Português (Brasil): Moréia-de-Nova-Gales-do-Sul
Italiano: Murena macchiata australiana

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

鳥羽水族館 — ユリウツボChecked: 2026-11-04
新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海 — ユリウツボChecked: 2026-11-07
Museums Victoria — Fishes of Australia — Sawtooth Moray, Gymnothorax prionodonChecked: 2026-11-07

We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.

The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.

The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.

This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.

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