Page 323 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

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CLASS CEPHALASPIDOMORPHI With its long, cylindrical body, the sea mottling on its back. Adults live at sea
lamprey might at first be mistaken for and feed on dead or netted fish as well
Sea Lamprey an eel, but closer inspection reveals as attacking a wide variety of live
differences. Unlike eels, the sea ones. It uses a “sucker” to
Petromyzon marinus lamprey has no jaws. Its body is attach to its host, scrapes a
LENGTH flattened toward the tail and it has hole through the skin,
Up to 4 ft (1.2 m) two dorsal fins. Its circular mouth lies and sucks out flesh and
WEIGHT beneath the head, and is surrounded fluids. It spawns in rivers and
Up to 5 1 / 2 lb (2.5 kg) by a frill of tiny skin extensions. Inside the larvae remain in fresh water
DEPTH the mouth, the teeth are arranged in for about five years before they
3–2,100 ft (1–650 m) numerous concentric arcs, which helps mature and move out to sea. This
DISTRIBUTION Coastal temperate waters of, and to distinguish it from the similar, but species is now rare as a result of
rivers adjacent to, north Atlantic smaller, lampern (right). As a mature trapping, intentional poisoning, and
adult, the sea lamprey has dark the degradation of its river habitat.

CLASS CEPHALASPIDOMORPHI
Lampern

Lampetra fluviatilis
LENGTH
Up to 20 in (50 cm)
WEIGHT
Up to 5 oz (150 g)
DEPTH
0–30 ft (0–10 m)
DISTRIBUTION Coastal waters and rivers of
northeastern Atlantic, northwestern Mediterranean
The lampern is also known as the
river lamprey because the adults never
stray far from the coast and often
remain in estuaries. It may be
distinguished from the sea lamprey
(left) by its smaller size, uniform color,
and the smaller number and different
arrangement of its teeth. Larvae that
hatch in rivers migrate to estuaries,
where they spend a year or so feeding
on herring, sprat, and flounder.

CLASS MYXINI called a notochord, allowing it great CLASS MYXINI and feeds mainly on carrion. It causes
flexibility. Fleshy barbels surround its great damage to fish caught in static
Hagfish slitlike, jawless mouth, and it has only Pacific Hagfish nets and will enter large fish through
rudimentary eyes. There is a single either the mouth or the anus and
Myxine glutinosa pair of ventral gill openings about a Eptatretus stoutii proceed to eat them from the inside
LENGTH Up to 30 in third of the way along the body. LENGTH out, consuming their guts and muscles.
(80 cm) The hagfish spends most of its time Up to 20 in (50 cm)
3
WEIGHT Up to 1 / 4 lb buried in mud with only the tip of WEIGHT dorsal
(750 g) the head showing. It mainly eats Up to 3 lb (1.4 kg) finfold
DEPTH 130–4,000 ft crustaceans but will scavenge on DEPTH
(40–1,200 m) whale and fish carcasses. Once the 65–2,100 ft (20–650 m)
DISTRIBUTION Coastal and shelf waters, below 55°F hagfish has latched onto a carcass with DISTRIBUTION Coastal and shelf waters of
(13°C) in north Atlantic and western Mediterranean its mouth, it forms a knot near northeastern Pacific
its tail, then slides the knot forward
This extraordinary fish can literally tie in order to provide itself with The Pacific hagfish is similar to the
itself in knots and it does so regularly sufficient leverage to tear its hagfish found in the Atlantic. It is
as a means of ridding itself of excess mouth away along usually a brownish red color and
slime. Special slime-exuding pores run with a chunk may have a blue or purple sheen.
along both sides of the eel-like body, of food. It has no true fins, only a dorsal
enabling it to produce sufficient slime finfold that continues
to fill a bucket in a matter of minutes. around the tail but that has
The glutinous slime is usually more little function in swimming.
than adequate to deter most predators. The Pacific hagfish lives in soft mud
Like all jawless fish, the hagfish has
no bony skeleton but simply
a supporting flexible CLASS MYXINI This species is also known as the
rod of cells, inshore hagfish because it lives in
Japanese Hagfish relatively shallow water compared to
other species of hagfish. It is similar in
Eptatretus burgeri shape and size to the Pacific hagfish,
LENGTH with six gill apertures and a white
Up to 24 in (60 cm) line along its back. It lives buried in
WEIGHT mud close to shore but migrates to
Insufficient information deeper water to breed. Unlike other
DEPTH species of hagfish, it reproduces OCEAN LIFE
30–900 ft (10–270 m) seasonally; this is thought to be a
DISTRIBUTION Inshore temperate waters of response to changing temperatures in
northwestern Pacific the shallow waters in which it lives. Its
tough skin is used to make leather.