White-headed hagfish

White-headed hagfish
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Infraphylum:	Agnatha
Superclass:	Cyclostomi
Class:	Myxini
Order:	Myxiniformes
Family:	Myxinidae
Genus:	Myxine
Species:	M. ios
Binomial name
Myxine ios Fernholm, 1981

The white-headed hagfish (Myxine ios) is a species of jawless fish of the family Myxinidae (hagfish). ^{[2] [3] [4]}

Its scientific name alludes to the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (IOS), Wormley, Surrey, which supplied the holotype. ^[5]

Distribution

Myxine ios is a marine bathydemersal fish, ^[6] living at depths of 614–1,625 m (2,014–5,331 ft). It is non-migratory, living in the North Atlantic waters off Iceland, Ireland and the western Sahara. ^{[7] [8]}

Description

The white-headed hagfish may grow up to 57 centimetres (1.87 ft) long. ^[5] It is a seven-gilled hagfish; it can be distinguished from related species by its large number of tooth cusps: between 44 and 51. ^[9] The Irish M. ios population is distinguished from the southern variety by its white head and whitish middorsal or midventral line. ^[10]

Behaviour

M. ios is a scavenger of dead or disabled fish, which it bores into. Its eggs are large, 2–3 centimetres (0.79–1.18 in). ^[11]

References

1. "IUCN Red List of Threatened Species".
2. "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Myxine ios Fernholm, 1981". www.marinespecies.org.
3. Watkins, Michael; Beolens, Bo (January 30, 2015). Sharks: An Eponym Dictionary. Pelagic Publishing Ltd. ISBN   9781784270377 – via Google Books.
4. Check-list of the Fishes of the Eastern Tropical Atlantic: Clofeta. Junta Nacional de Investigação Cientifica e Tecnológica. June 19, 1990. ISBN   9789230026202 – via Google Books.
5. "Myxine ios, White-headed hagfish". www.fishbase.se.
6. Ramos, Ana; Ramil, Fran; Sanz, José Luis (September 25, 2017). Deep-Sea Ecosystems Off Mauritania: Research of Marine Biodiversity and Habitats in the Northwest African Margin. Springer. ISBN   9789402410235 – via Google Books.
7. Heessen, Henk J. L.; Daan, Niels; Ellis, Jim R. (September 1, 2015). Fish atlas of the Celtic Sea, North Sea, and Baltic Sea: Based on international research-vessel surveys. Wageningen Academic Publishers. ISBN   9789086868780 – via Google Books.
8. Priede, I. G. (August 10, 2017). Deep-Sea Fishes: Biology, Diversity, Ecology and Fisheries. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9781107083820 – via Google Books.
9. Berkovitz, Barry K. B.; Shellis, R. Peter (October 14, 2016). The Teeth of Non-Mammalian Vertebrates. Academic Press. ISBN   9780128028841 – via Google Books.
10. Fernholm, B. (July 19, 1981). "A new species of hagfish of the genus Myxine, with notes on other eastern Atlantic myxinids" . Journal of Fish Biology. 19 (1): 73–82. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8649.1981.tb05812.x.
11. "Myxine ios | NBN Atlas". species.nbnatlas.org.