Environment & Energy

hatrack

(59,593 posts) Sat Jul 15, 2017, 09:14 AM Jul 2017

Your Car Has Just Been Crushed By Hagfish - Frequently Asked Questions

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Photo courtesy Oregon State Police.

What’s a hagfish?

Hagfish are eel-like jawless fishes. They are primitive, lacking a vertebral column. They are deep-sea scavengers notorious for tying themselves into knots as they rip chunks of meat from carcasses. Your ancestors, at some point, probably looked a lot like a hagfish.

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Hagfish at Mount Desert Island Biological Lab. Photo by author.

I thought they were eels?

Slime eel (as well as snot snake) is the common name for Pacific hagfish. Dr. Milton Love has the simplest guide to telling the difference between hagfish and eels: Look at the hand holding the fish. Is it completely covered in slime? Then it’s a hagfish.

So, it’s an Agnathan?

Hagfish are Cyclostomes. Hagfish systematics is kind of a mess right now, with competing hypotheses about where hagfish and their ancestors fit into the history of vertebrate evolution. Unless you’re a taxonomist, I wouldn’t worry to much about hagfish cladistics; it will likely change a time or two in your lifetime.

Ok, so what’s the deal with all the slime?

Hagfish produce prodigious amounts of slime. A single hagfish can fill a 5-gallon bucket with slime, seemingly instantly. This slime provides protection. Hagfish have been observed escaping from sharks by choking them with enormous amounts of slime. When they feed on a carcass, the slime pours out, covering the carcass and preventing other scavengers from creeping in on their turf. If not properly cared for, hagfish in captivity will suffocate in their own slime.