Sea Creature Of The Day

Meet the Black Seadevil, an elusive anglerfish recently captured on film for the first time:

If the anglerfish’s toothy jaw and dead-eyed stare creep you out, take some comfort in the fact that this female fish is just three and a half inches long. Its dainty size, plus its preferences for the dark deep-sea, helps explain why sightings are so rare. “This is the first time we’ve captured this fish on video in its habitat,” says senior scientist Bruce Robison of the Monteray Bay Aquarium Research Institute in a statement. “Anglerfish, like this Melanocetus, are among the most rarely seen of all deep-sea fishes.”

There are more than 200 species of anglerfish, and while some can grow longer than three feet, most are less than a foot, reports National Geographic. The females of all species, however, carry a fishing-pole-like spine topped with a glowing “lure” made of flesh. This feature earns the fish its name, as it uses the lure to attract prey close enough to be snatched up its toothsome jaw.

Erin McCarthy offers a clarification about the sometimes brutal sex lives of anglerfish:

You may have heard how some anglerfish reproduce via the males fusing their bodies to the females’ until they essentially become one; the male loses his eyes, fins, teeth, and some internal organs and, from that point forward, lives off of the female, providing sperm when she’s ready to spawn. Those fish “are members of the suborder Ceratioidei, [or] deep sea anglerfishes, in which some species are known to reproduce by that means,” [American Museum of Natural History curator John] Sparks says. Still, that’s not the norm for those fish—scientists have so far only found parasitic males in 5 of 11 ceratioid families, according to Sparks—and it’s probably not what happens when humpback anglerfish mate, either. “That has not been found—yet—in this species,” Sparks says. “In the family this species belongs to, only loosely attached, non-parasitic, males have been found on females—they still retain their teeth, etc.”

Browse a gallery of other odd-looking anglerfish here.