[3] The form of Anotopterus suggests that of a swift swimmer, at least of a fish that can dart through water quickly for short distances, like some of its closest relatives in Paralepididae have been reported to do.

Like its close cousins, it is likely that these fishes readily avoid collecting nets at the depths they most frequently occur in the mesopelagic, especially larger individuals.

[5] They are likely visually based predators and adult individuals can easily engulf relatively large prey, fishes with 20–30 cm fork length, whole due to their unattached pectoral girdles and distensible stomachs.

[6] It has been noted that as daggertooths age their teeth begin to diminish and their stomachs and intestines atrophy while their gonads increase greatly in size.

[4] This was discovered in 1971, after German ichthyologist Günther Maul caught a black toothless A. pharao off Madeira that measured 75.9 cm.

[7] This observed ontogenetic shift hints to a potentially semelparous reproductive modality, while this aspect of life history has not yet been fully substantiated.

[6] Counter to this assumption, however, are the findings of Kim et al. (1997) who discovered that daggertooths can comprise a sizable portion of the diets of deep diving tuna in certain areas of the tropical, west Pacific.