Myxine glutinosa


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.

Distribution

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. It is also found in the western Atlantic Ocean from Baffin Island, Canada south to North Carolina. A related species, the Gulf hagfish, occurs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Description

The Atlantic hagfish may grow up to long, with no eyes and no jaws; its star-shaped mouth is surrounded by 6 barbels. There is a single gill slit on each side of the eel-like body. It has a total of 88–102 pores from which it can exude a slimy mucus. 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.

Ecology

Hagfish such as M. glutinosa feed on the carcasses of fishes, which they bore into through any available opening.

Trivia

Following an unofficial poll by the NRK P1 broadcaster in 1982, the hagfish was voted the national fish of Norway with over 4 000 votes, beating the second place by a large margin, as that fish only got 2,552 votes. However, the vote was most likely rigged and the result was overturned by the jury.