Highhat

P. acuminatus has a deep, rhomboid body with an arched dorsal profile. The head is low and the snout protrudes beyond the mouth, with a notched upper jaw which encloses the lower jaw. The villiform teeth are arranged in bands with those in the outer row of the lower jaw being enlarged. There are no barbels on the chin but there are five pores and there are ten pores on the snout. The preoperculum has weak serrations. The long based dorsal fin has a deep notch separating the spiny and soft-rayed parts with between eight and ten spines before the notch and a single spine and between 37 and 41 soft rays behind it. The spiny part is tall with the sixth spine being the longest. The anal fin is supported by two spines, the second spine being quite thin, and seven or eight soft rays.

P. acuminatus is found in the western Atlantic Ocean where it occurs from North Carolina southwards through the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico to Venezuela. It is found at depths between 60 and 70 metres (200 and 230 feet) in clear waters around tropical islands, often associated with coral reefs, as well as in nearby bays where there is a rubble substrate or the eroded borders of beds of seagrass.