Page 192 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

192 ATLAS OF THE WORLD’S STRANGEST ANIMALS

Anglerfish are often described as one of the ocean’s ugliest
Anglerfish habitats
fish! Although these flat-bodied beasts certainly wouldn’t
win any beauty pageants, such a label is perhaps a little
unfair.These fish may look grotesque but they are
beautifully adapted for hunting in the ocean’s dark depths.
Anglers belong to an extremely widespread and varied
group (order Lophiformes), which can be divided into 18
families and more than 300 species. Most are identifiable
by their flat bodies, huge gaping mouths and fake lures.
Indeed, their common name – anglerfish – is a reference
to their unusual method of catching prey.Attached to a
bony spine between their eyes is a flexible ‘rod’, tipped
with a fleshy lure. Called the esca, this is used to fish for
food, and is really part of an elongated dorsal fin. Lophius
piscatorius has a number of separate, elongated fins, but it’s
the first of these, terminating in a fleshy lobe, that other
fish find so tempting.When prey approaches and tries to
eat this fake bait, the anglers simply open their mouths and
suck them in, wriggling and whole! Prey doesn’t even
have to bite the lure; just brushing past is enough to
trigger an automatic reaction which flings the anglers’
gaping maw open. Lines of backwards-facing teeth prevent
any victims from escaping! existed but were far stranger than those ancient tales led
More than 2000 years ago, the Greek philosopher, us to believe.
Aristotle (384–322BCE) described a ‘fishing frog’ which,
he said, lay in wait for prey on the sea bed, and used Patient predators
filaments on its head to lure prey into their massive Anglerfish can be found in both the deep oceans and
mouths. Such tales were dismissed as fantasy. In 1925, along shallow coastal regions in all tropical and temperate
however, it was discovered that anglerfish not only environments. Of the 25 known species of Lophius, Lophius

Comparisons

The powerful, streamlined body of the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) are called in the United Kingdom) were once widely promoted as an
couldn’t be more different from that of the anglerfish.Although they environmentally friendly alternative to cod. Now, both species are
share a similar range, the anglers’ flattened shape is suitable for ambush suffering from over-fishing.
rather than pursuing prey. Ironically,‘monkfish’ (which is what anglers

Atlantic cod Anglerfish

(c) 2011 Marshall Cavendish. All Rights Reserved.