hagfish
Sign in to saveHagfish, of the class Myxini (also known as Hyperotreti) and order Myxiniformes , are eel-shaped jawless fish (occasionally called slime eels). Hagfish are the only known living animals that have a skull but no vertebral column, however they do have rudimentary vertebrae. Hagfish are marine predators and scavengers that can defend themselves against other larger predators by releasing copious amounts of slime from mucous glands in their skin.
AI overview
Hagfish are eel-shaped jawless fish found in the ocean that have a unique skeletal structure—a skull but no true vertebral column, making them the only living animals with this combination. When threatened by larger predators, hagfish defend themselves by releasing large amounts of slime from their skin, and they also hunt and scavenge for food on the ocean floor.
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Article
19 sectionsContents
- Physical characteristics
- Body features
- Slime
- Respiration
- Nervous system
- Eye
- Cardiac function, circulation, and fluid balance
- Musculoskeletal system
- Reproduction
- Feeding
- Classification
- Phylogeny
- Commercial use
- As food
- In textiles
- Skins
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Hagfish, of the class Myxini (also known as Hyperotreti) and order Myxiniformes , are eel-shaped jawless fish (occasionally called slime eels). Hagfish are the only known living animals that have a skull but no vertebral column, however they do have rudimentary vertebrae. Hagfish are marine predators and scavengers that can defend themselves against other larger predators by releasing copious amounts of slime from mucous glands in their skin.
Although their exact relationship to the only other living group of jawless fish, the lampreys, was initially the subject of controversy, genetic evidence suggests that hagfish and lampreys are more closely related to each other than to jawed vertebrates, thus forming the superclass Cyclostomi. The oldest-known stem group hagfish are known from the Late Carboniferous, around 310 million years ago, with modern representatives first being recorded in the mid-Cretaceous around 100 million years ago.