Nauen in 1983. It is differentiated from its congeners in a number of ways, the first being the absence of a swim bladder. Its palatine bone is also wider than other members of its genus and its otolith is oval-shaped where its congeners' are rectangular. In the eastern Atlantic Ocean there are three stocks differentiated by location and time at which spawning occurs, but studies have not found any distinct genetic differences between these populations. Genetic differences only start to appear at the transatlantic scale, a fact supported by a lack of migration between western and eastern Atlantic populations, whereas eastern Atlantic stocks are known to converge in certain locations like the Norwegian Sea and North Sea. Description The Atlantic mackerel has an elongate, fusiform body with a long, pointed snout. The eyes are large and covered by an adipose eyelid, while the teeth are small, sharp, and conical. Scales are also small, with the exceptions of those immediately posterior to the head and around the pectoral fins. These small scales give the Atlantic mackerel a velvet-like feel. The two dorsal fins are large and spaced far apart. The second dorsal fin is typically followed by 5 dorsal finlets, though it can have 4 or 6. The anal fin, which originates slightly behind the second dorsal fin, is similar to it in size and shape and is also succeeded by 5 finlets. The fish's body tapers to a slim caudal peduncle, the end of the fish to which the short but broad tail fin is attached. Its body is steel-blue dorsally with wavy black lines running perpendicular to the fish's length. The rest of its body is silvery-white to yellow and may have darker splotches. It can reach sizes of up to and has a common length of . Its maximum published weight is . Distribution and habitat The Atlantic mackerel's native range in the western Atlantic extends from Labrador, Canada to Cape Lookout, North Carolina. In the eastern Atlantic, it can be found from Iceland and Norway to as far south as Mauritania. It is also found in the Mediterranean, Black, and Baltic Seas. Its latitudinal range is 70°N-25°N and its longitudinal range is 77°W-42°E. Its preferred water temperature is above , but Atlantic mackerel are common in waters as cold as and have been found, albeit rarely, in waters. The Atlantic mackerel's common depth range extends from the