| Myxine glutinosa | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Infraphylum: | Agnatha |
| Class: | Myxini |
| Order: | Myxiniformes |
| Family: | Myxinidae |
| Genus: | Myxine |
| Species: | M. glutinosa |
| Binomial name | |
| Myxine glutinosa | |
| Synonyms [1] [2] | |
| |
Myxine glutinosa, known as the Atlantic hagfish in North America, and often simply as the hagfish in Europe, is a species of jawless fish of the genus Myxine .
The distribution of Myxine glutinosa in the eastern Atlantic Ocean extends from the western Mediterranean Sea and Portugal to the North Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat and the Varanger Fjord. [3] It is also found in the western Atlantic Ocean from Baffin Island, Canada south to North Carolina. [4] A related species, the Gulf hagfish ( Eptatretus springeri ), occurs in the Gulf of Mexico. [5]
The Atlantic hagfish may grow up to 2.5 feet (0.76 m) long, with no eyes and no jaws; its star-shaped mouth is surrounded by 6 barbels. [4] There is a single gill slit on each side of the eel-like body. [4] It has a total of 88–102 pores from which it can exude a slimy mucus. [3] Hagfish have very flexible bodies which allow them to manipulate themselves into knots. The knots created by the hagfish remove mucous from the body, allow them to escape tight spaces, pull potential prey from burrows, and because they have no opposable jaws it helps create leverage while they eat. [6]
Hagfish such as M. glutinosa feed on the carcasses of fishes, which they bore into through any available opening. [3] [4]
Hagfish, of the class Myxini and order Myxiniformes, are eel-shaped, slime-producing marine fish. They are the only known living animals that have a skull but no vertebral column, although hagfish do have rudimentary vertebrae. Along with lampreys, hagfish are jawless; the two form the sister group to jawed vertebrates, and living hagfish remain similar to hagfish from around 300 million years ago.
Agnatha is an infraphylum of jawless fish in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, consisting of both present (cyclostomes) and extinct species. Among recent animals, cyclostomes are sister to all vertebrates with jaws, known as gnathostomes.
A craniate is a member of the Craniata, a proposed clade of chordate animals with a skull of hard bone or cartilage. Living representatives are the Myxini (hagfishes), Hyperoartia, and the much more numerous Gnathostomata. Formerly distinct from vertebrates by including hagfish, molecular and anatomical research in the 21st century has led to the reinclusion of hagfish as vertebrates, making living craniates synonymous with living vertebrates.
The ladyfish or tenpounder is a species of fish in the genus Elops, the only genus in the monotypic family Elopidae.
Cyclostomi, often referred to as Cyclostomata, is a group of vertebrates that comprises the living jawless fishes: the lampreys and hagfishes. Both groups have jawless mouths with horny epidermal structures that function as teeth called ceratodontes, and branchial arches that are internally positioned instead of external as in the related jawed fishes. The name Cyclostomi means "round mouths". It was named by Joan Crockford-Beattie.
Eptatretus springeri, the Gulf hagfish, is a bathydemersal vertebrate which lives primarily in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. It has been observed feeding at and around brine pools: areas of high salinity which resemble lakes on the ocean floor that do not mix with the surrounding water due to difference in density. The high salt content, approximately 200 ppt compared to 35 ppt for standard seawater, creates a buoyant surface which renders oceanic submersibles unable to descend into the pool. It is believed that the inside of the pools only supports microbial life, while the majority of macroscopic life, such as methane-utilizing mussels, exists on the edges. The Gulf hagfish feeds on the primary producers of these environments, as well as other predators.
The broadgilled hagfish or New Zealand hagfish is a hagfish found around New Zealand and the Chatham Islands as well as around the south and east coasts of Australia, at depths between 1 and 900 metres.
The mojarras are a family, Gerreidae, of fish in the order Perciformes. The family includes about 53 species found worldwide in tropical and warm temperate regions. They mostly inhabit coastal salt and brackish waters, although some occur in fresh water.
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of living fish species are ray-finned fish, belonging to the class Actinopterygii, with around 99% of those being teleosts.
The European river lamprey, also known as the river lamprey or lampern, is a species of freshwater lamprey.
The Pacific hagfish is a species of hagfish. It lives in the mesopelagic to abyssal Pacific ocean, near the ocean floor. It is a jawless fish and has a body plan that resembles early paleozoic fish. They are able to excrete prodigious amounts of slime in self-defense.
Eptatretus is a large genus of hagfish.
Myxine is a genus of hagfish, from the Greek μυξῖνος.
The southern hagfish is a hagfish of the genus Myxine.
Nemamyxine is a genus of hagfish.
Notomyxine tridentiger is a species of hagfish that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coasts of South America. It is the only member of its genus. It can be found in the temperate waters of the Southeast Pacific and Southwest Atlantic, as well as the southern coasts of South America. It can reach a maximum length of 57 cm.
Rubicundus is a genus of hagfishes, the only member of the subfamily Rubicundinae. All species in it were formerly classified in Eptatretus. R. eos, R. lakeside, and R. rubicundus are known from single specimens caught in the Tasman Sea, Galápagos, and Taiwan, respectively. They are named after the distinctive red coloration that all species share.
Eptatretus hexatrema, the sixgill hagfish or snotslang, is a species of marine fish in the hagfish family of order Myxiniformes. It is native to the South Atlantic Ocean and southwestern Indian Ocean.
The short beard codling is a species of marine bony fish in the family Moridae. Native to the western Atlantic Ocean, it is found on the continental slope at depths between 50 and 1,620 m.
The white-headed hagfish is a species of jawless fish of the family Myxinidae (hagfish).
Haney, W. A., Clark, A. J., & Uyeno, T. A. (2019). Characterization of body knotting behavior used for escape in a diversity of hagfishes. Journal of Zoology. doi: 10.1111/jzo.12752
