The Hagfish: a living wormy fossil
Scientists estimate that the hagfish has been around for 300 million years and has barely changed. They are the only animal with a jawbone but no spine. They are so interesting and unique and must be studied for their ways of helping our world and for their unique characteristics.
The amazing slimy hagfish body size ranges from 4cm to 127cm, but most are sized around 35cm-50cm, depending on their species. They have paddle tails for swimming and a body like an eel. They have no true fins but 6-8 repulsive barbels around the mouth and nostril. A barbel is a fleshy filament growing from the mouth or snout of a fish. The coolest part about the hagfish in my opinion is its jaws and mouth because their teeth do not open and close vertically, but horizontally:
This lateral motion of the jaw is only shared by other arthopods, animals in a taxonomic rank consisting of insects, crustaceans and other animals lacking spines. The amazing hagfish teeth are shaped like horns and they retract and protract to grasp food. The color of a hagfish depends on its species; most common are a grayish pink and look like a worm, while some can also have blue-gray skin.
The distinct boneless, scaleless, and jawless hagfish shoots mucus, which when combined with threadlike fibers, becomes slime. This amazing slime comes from 90-200 pores along its body. This sounds like a lot but the slime only emits where the hagfish has been bit or attacked.
Their foul slime is rare in the animal universe. The mucus, when mixed with seawater, acts as a net to trap predators using the slimy threads and is very dangerous. The slime is thought to be sticky but is surprisingly soft, compared to other animals like the velvet worm, whose slime has a rough texture. However, this hagfish mucus is better and stronger than your average mucus. It comes out through 100 glands along its body. When the mucus mixes with seawater it becomes very dangerous slime. The slime expands 10,000 times its size in around 400 milliseconds (0.4 seconds). This slime is made of very thin proteins which have nearly bulletproof properties like kevlar. To quote the Oxford Dictionary, kevlar is a “synthetic fiber of high tensile strength used especially as a reinforcing agent in the manufacture of tires and other rubber products and protective gear such as helmets and vests.”
This slime can clog the gills of fish and sharks causing them to have trouble breathing, or may even suffocate them. When the hagfish is attacked it releases the slime, causing its predator to gag and release the hagfish. The hagfish’s fierce slime is why very few marine animals attack, because of this mucus and gill clogging defense.
While the hagfish’s slime is used as a defense from predators, at times it might get stuck on the hagfish itself, and this fish doesn’t want to be covered in its own slime!
The spineless hagfish wraps its tail around its body to remove the slime from itself in an overhand knot. The hagfish not only slimes when being attacked, the hagfish slimes when agitated and does the same overhand knot technique to clean its gills and body.
Hagfish slime is used for many fascinating applications and is part of various peoples’ diets. Hagfish are mainly eaten in Korea. In fact, Koreans eat these fish so much that they have a risk of going extinct and the hagfish even has to be imported from the United States. This food is valued very much and has a very elaborate cooking process. For those who want to learn: step one, the hagfish are skinned alive for maximum freshness. Then they get cut up into segments and are slapped onto a grill, still moving. After that the fish can be served in many ways such as in stir fry or in sauces.
The slime can also be used for many products. It’s used for fabric and in wallets and belts. The slime has medical uses too. The wet mucus can help treat some burns and dried slime can help with bandages.
To conclude, the hagfish might not be the most admired marine animal. However, the hagfish can shoot slime and tie itself into knots and, having amazing characteristics, can help solve many problems and has caught the attention of many scientists and is an animal that we must protect for the future of slime, food and more.