[3] The head and body are marked with oval groups of dark spots and the outer third of pectoral fin is bright yellow.

Its range extends along the Atlantic coasts of the United States from North Carolina south to Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico where it occurs in the Florida Keys and the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in Texas south through the Bahamas into the West Indies and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

It the occurs along the Brazilian coast from Maranhão to São Paulo, including the islands of Trindade and the Fernando de Noronha.

[4] It is a protogynous hermaphrodite and the females reach sexual maturity at a fork length around 51 centimetres (20 in) and at around 4.6 years old.

[4] The yellowfin grouper was first formally described by Carolus Linnaeus in the 10th edition of the Systema Naturae as Perca venenosa in 1758; the type locality was given as "America" but is thought to be the Bahamas.