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Name : peaceable hagfish ( Eptatretus stoutii )
Where it lives : Cold water system seabeds around the world , normally below 300 feet ( 90 m ) deep
What it rust : Small invertebrates and dead animals that fall down to the seafloor
Why it ’s awesome :
At first glance , these crude Pisces are striking thanks to their unusual appearance .
With no fins or scales , these pinkish - gray fish look more like giant earthworms gone unseasonable with rows of horrible dentition spewing from their jawless mouths .
The ancient creature have been on the satellite for over 500 million yr and can maturate up to 25 inches ( 64 centimeters ) long . Although they look like eels , they are a type of Pisces visit a cyclostome and are related to lamper eel . They have a skull but no jaw .
But when under fire , hagfish reveal their most impressive feature article — outstanding slime that can take down a shark .
When a predator come nigh , hagfish flash out a sticky slime toclogan attacker ’s gills . " We ’ve never seen a successful depredation on a hagfish by any gill - breathing predator,“Tim Winegard , who studied hagfish gunk while a educatee at Chapman University in California , told science podcasterAlie Wardon herOlogiespodcast .
An individual has special glands that turn back slime threads and can lay in around 38 inches ( 96 centimeters ) of them within each square mm of its peel . " They would never be caught without slime , ever . They just have so much on board , " Winegard said .
This incredible power was made clean during a2017 dealings stroke , when a truck full of hagfish that was en road to South Korea — where hag are considered a delicacy — overturned on an Oregon main road , coating the road with ooze gunk .
Related:100 - million - year - old hagfish complete with slime kit discovered
" They in general make the gook as a demurrer against vulture , but they also do it when they are stressed out , and being dumped onto a highway counts as accent for a hagfish,“Douglas Fudge , a relative biologist and hagfish expert at Chapman University in California , told Live Science at the meter .
— Why this lab reeks of animal human body and contains a suitcase full of slime
— The scoop on muck — hyenas squeeze it from their butts and parrotfish sleep in snot balloon
— Pacific lamprey eel : The jawless fish that survived 4 peck extinctions and fellate prey wry of line and body fluids
These creepy creature are scavengers , eatingwhale falland other decay tissue paper from animals that sink to the seafloor . This helps to keep the ecosystem clean and rhythm food around the deep ocean .
Hagfish do n’t use up often so when they do , they gorge themselves . " Even in captivity we only course them every three to six month , " Winegard said .
Hagfish have poor imagination so they rely on their excellent sense of smell to feel a meal . " Four tentacles around their oral fissure help them to find target while two pairs of teeth - like projections on their ' rasping tongue ' help snap and carry nutrient into their mouth , " according to the Ocean Exploration Trust’sNautilus Live .
