''Myxine glutinosa'', known as the Atlantic hagfish in North America, and often simply as the hagfish in Europe, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

jawless fish Agnatha (, Ancient Greek 'without jaws') is an infraphylum of jawless fish in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, consisting of both present ( cyclostomes) and extinct (conodonts and ostracoderms) species. Among recent animals, cyclosto ...

of the genus ''

Myxine ''Myxine'' is a genus of hagfish, from the Greek μυξῖνος (''myxinos'', "slimy"). In 2021, three new species of ''Myxine'' were described from the Galápagos including '' M. phantasma'', the only species of ''Myxine'' to not have mela ...

''.

Distribution

The distribution of ''Myxine glutinosa'' in the eastern

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

extends from the western

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

to the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

Skagerrak The Skagerrak (, , ) is a strait running between the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the southeast coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area through the Danish Straits to the Baltic Sea. T ...

Kattegat The Kattegat (; sv, Kattegatt ) is a sea area bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish Straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Skåne in Sweden ...

and the

Varanger Fjord The Varangerfjord ( en, Varanger Fjord; russian: Варангер-фьорд, Варяжский залив; fi, Varanginvuono; sme, Várjavuonna) is the easternmost fjord in Norway, north of Finland. The fjord is located in Troms og Finnmark co ...

. It is also found in the western

from Baffin Island,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

south to

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

. A related species, the Gulf hagfish ('' Eptatretus springeri''), occurs in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

Description

The Atlantic hagfish may grow up to long, with no eyes and no jaws; its star-shaped mouth is surrounded by 6

barbels In fish anatomy and turtle anatomy, a barbel is a slender, whiskerlike sensory organ near the mouth. Fish that have barbels include the catfish, the carp, the goatfish, the hagfish, the sturgeon, the zebrafish, the black dragonfish and some s ...

. There is a single

gill slit Gill slits are individual openings to gills, i.e., multiple gill arches, which lack a single outer cover. Such gills are characteristic of cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays, as well as deep-branching vertebrates such as lampreys. In con ...

on each side of the

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

-like body. It has a total of 88–102 pores from which it can exude a slimy

mucus Mucus ( ) is a slippery aqueous secretion produced by, and covering, mucous membranes. It is typically produced from cells found in mucous glands, although it may also originate from mixed glands, which contain both serous and mucous cells. It ...

. Hagfish have very flexible bodies which allow them to manipulate themselves into knots. The knots created by the hagfish remove mucous from the body, allow them to escape tight spaces, pull potential prey from burrows, and because they have no opposable jaws it helps create leverage while they eat.Haney, W. A., Clark, A. J., & Uyeno, T. A. (2019). Characterization of body knotting behavior used for escape in a diversity of hagfishes. Journal of Zoology. doi: 10.1111/jzo.12752

Ecology

Hagfish such as ''M. glutinosa'' feed on the carcasses of fishes, which they bore into through any available opening.

References

Haney, W. A., Clark, A. J., & Uyeno, T. A. (2019). Characterization of body knotting behavior used for escape in a diversity of hagfishes. Journal of Zoology
doi: 10.1111/jzo.12752

External links

''Fishes of the Gulf of Maine'' by Henry B. Bigelow and William C. Schroeder {{Taxonbar, from=Q780327 Myxinidae Fish of the North Atlantic Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus