Comments on: New Hagfish Discovered

By: Tengu

Tengu — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 21:37:39 +0000

Isnt this exciting? Hagfish are amoungst the most delightfully yucky creatures in the world, their cleaning up ability, and sliming. it is said that a hagfish put into a bucket of water can turn it to goo in seconds.

having no bones, they can tie themselves in knots, indeed this is one way they squirm into things.

they are a particular delicacy in Korea, where they are called `slime eels` they are so much indemand, there is an import industry in that country.

By: MrInspector

MrInspector — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:16:21 +0000

That’s great a new Hagfish, I was worried that we didn’t have enough mucus in the world!

By: dogu4

dogu4 — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:25:45 +0000

The life cycles of these hagfish and related lamprey species potentially casts an interesting light onto the subject of cryptozoology. They are well adapted for their lifestyle of scavenging. Interesting too; lampreys go through a long larval stage…sometime many years in length. As a scavenger their strategy seems to be “wait” while staying buried in the cold mud. They are well adapted for this and are recognized for their ability to go for long periods of time without eating. It’s been speculated that some species are particularly well adapted for living in submarine alluvial fans, burrowing into the mud, waiting for storms powerful enough to bring fresh dead stuff their way. People who study ecology and climate recognize that animals with long larval stages are likely tuned into rhythms and cycles in nature. Locust, Mormon Crickets, and cicadas are well known examples of insects who exhibit this. As humans we might not be aware that there’s a 17 year cycle that the cicadas observe, but you can’t argue that it is there, considering the success of these insects.

We’ve become accustomed to hearing about “100 year storms” and “50 year storms”. An ecologist whom I’d met was commenting on how some populations of animals are tuned into these long cycles, and additionally commenting on how difficult it would be to observe them for us since they are taking places in areas away from the light of the surface.

Cave Crickets have been found to live many many years and it’s been suggested they could live for 200 or more, patiently waiting, with its metabolism in stasis, the stable cold temperatures being ideal for this. Likewise, the alluvial fans of great rivers are very deep and very cold, but periodically, a great storm or a submarine landslide send a gigantic storm of turbidity out across the cold dark delta and things that have been patiently waiting for a long long time recieve signals that it is time.

Maybe HP Lovecraft was on to something.

By: Leto

Leto — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:56:35 +0000

Eptatretus strickrotti

By: kittenz

kittenz — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 18:16:42 +0000

Well, a new species is a new species, but … YUCK.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 16:03:53 +0000

Slurp gun? Marine Biologists get all the cool toys.

By: sschaper

sschaper — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:40:46 +0000

That’s not a hagfish, that’s a goa’uld larva!

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:18:05 +0000

Hagfish can also extrude several pounds of mucous from their bodies when threatened, making them harder to capture or swallow. Yum.