Eastern Atlantic: Morocco, Madeira and Cape Verde to South Africa. Western Atlantic: USA to Brazil. Indo-West Pacific: Tanzania to South Africa, then India and Sri Lanka to the Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea, north to Japan, Fiji and Hawaii, south to the Philippines, Indonesia and western Australia. Eastern Pacific: Chile.

Lateral line more or less a continuous trough covered by thin membranous scales, usually lost during capture. Second preopercular spine well developed, sub equal or longer than first and third. Pectoral rays 20-25, with a mode of 21 in Hawaii, 22 in the eastern Atlantic, and 23 in the western Atlantic. Interorbital width 7-9 % SL, narrower than in S. longimanus.

Found on soft bottom, at a bottom temperature range of about 5.5°-12.5°C and usually at a depth of about 400 m. They live on or near the bottom but feed in the water column. Specimens usually brought to the surface with the stomach everted. Stomach contents included parts of bathypelagic crustaceans of family Oplophoridae, Oplophorus sp., and an amphipod. Anterolateral glandular grooves with venom gland.