![]() Anglerfish have huge mouths and needle-like teeth to help capture and swallow anything that moves. The natural reaction would be to swim closer to investigate just in case that bobbing light was edible. If you were a fish living in the dark abyss and you saw a pulsing light bobbing about in the pitch black, you would probably be curious. The tip is a bioluminescent glowing lure that is filled with light-producing bacteria. The angler fish can turn the lure on and off by using a skin flap as a cover. Only about 25 species engage in sexual parasitism (males transforming themselves into decorative dangly bits) but, of course, those are the ones we love to talk about!Įven the anglerfish with ordinary sex lives are interesting! The spine or fishing pole that they use for angling is a wondrous instrument. ![]() There are about 300 species of anglerfish and they take all shapes and sizes. OK, I’ll stop there…the T-shirts are endless! There are over 300 species of anglerfishĪnglerfishes are named for the highly modified dorsal fin spines that they use to lure prey. Talk about living your essence! Becoming one with your partner! Totally absorbed in your life work! Rah, rah for the Team. Which is still less weird than the following CGI video – humans having weird anglerfish sex!? But that would be me inappropriately anthropomorphizing out loud! I imagine that sporting a string of such dangly bits could make a female anglerfish feel the equivalent of proud. The male’s destiny is to become a living sperm bank, worn like a lucky charm by a giant female. Female anglerfish with a male attached – follow the red arrow. The male is not much use to the female unless he is able to produce sperm. Two things continue to function: the gills for breathing and the testes for spawning. The male’s eyes and fins atrophy away, and nourishment comes from the female’s blood. Those lumps are all that is left of the males! They had taken that last bite and had become absorbed into the females’ bodies and became nothing more than dangly bits. Females preserved in formaldehyde sitting on dusty museum shelves usually have strange lumps that appear to be parasites. Since anglerfish are deep sea creatures, it took scientists years and years to figure this stuff out. Is this romantic or what!? If only Shakespeare had known! Female anglerfish carry weird little parasites If he hits the jackpot and comes across a female’s pheromone trail, he has only one objective: to find her and bite her! If he doesn’t manage to find a female, he will die. All he can do is follow his nose and hope that he catches the scent trail of pheromones being emitted by a female. The male anglerfish is useless on his own. His motto could easily be: SEX OR DIE! Because it is literally true. Talk about having only one thing on your mind! Life for the male anglerfish revolves around sex. A female anglerfish can collect more than one male. The male loses his own organs and becomes a sexual parasite, providing sperm for the female on demand. If he manages to find one, he will bite into her flesh and become fused to her body. In some species of anglerfish, the male has one goal – to find a female and latch onto her for the rest of his life. Here are some highlights regarding the amazing life of anglerfish and their weird sex habits. I’ve given hundreds of science lectures over the years, and one of my favorite creatures of all time is the Anglerfish.
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