 It is abundant in cold waters and a depth of in the West Atlantic, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.It was the first species of "Bathynomus" to be described and historically it was reported from other oceans, but these are now recognized as other closely related species.The unusually large size of "Bathynomus" has been attributed to an effect called deep-sea gigantism, where invertebrates living in cold deep waters tend to grow larger and have longer lifespans.