The slender snipe eel (''Nemichthys scolopaceus''), also known as the deep sea duck, is a fish that can weigh only a few ounces, yet reach 5 feet or 1.5 m in length. Features include a bird-like

beak The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for foo ...

with curving tips, covered with tiny hooked

teeth A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, t ...

, which they use to sweep through the water to catch shrimp and other

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

s. It has a lifespan of ten years. It has more

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristi ...

e in its backbone than any other animal, around 750. However, its anus has moved forward during its evolution and is now located on its throat. Its larvae are shaped like leaves, which actually get smaller before transforming into adults. Many specimens found in museums were spat up from larger fish that were caught in trawls. This organism is found at 2,000 meters in the North Atlantic. They have more than 700 vertebrae which is many more than most other animals. Their reproduction is done by spawning, which is when females lay the eggs and the males lay their sperm into the water at the same time. The slender snipe eel only spawns once in their lifetime as they die after spawning. It is difficult for scientists to research these organisms because of the extreme environment they inhabit. In addition, the conservation status of the slender snipe eel is not well known.

References

Feagans-Bartow, J. (2014). Ecology of the oceanic rim: pelagic eels as key ecosystem components. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 502, 257–266. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10707

External links

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Monterey Bay aquarium about Slender snipe eel
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Tim Flannery Timothy Fridtjof Flannery (born 28 January 1956) is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist, conservationist, explorer, author, science communicator, activist and public scientist. He was awarded Australian of the Yea ...

and Peter Schouten, ''Astonishing Animals: Extraordinary Creatures and the Fantastic Worlds They Inhabit''. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2004. Page 181. slender snipe eel Taxa named by John Richardson (naturalist) Cosmopolitan fish slender snipe eel {{Anguilliformes-stub