Myxine glutinosa, known as the Atlantic hagfish in North America, and often simply as the hagfish in Europe, is a species of jawless fish of the genus Myxine.
The Atlantic hagfish may grow up to 0.75m (02.46feet) long, with no eyes and no jaws; its star-shaped mouth is surrounded by 6 barbels.[1] There is a single gill slit on each side of the eel-like body. It has a total of 88–102 pores from which it can exude a slimy mucus.[2] 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.[3]
A related species, the Gulf hagfish (Eptatretus springeri), occurs in the Gulf of Mexico.[4]
The distribution of Myxine glutinosa in the eastern Atlantic Ocean extends from the western Mediterranean Sea and Portugal to the North Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat and the Varanger Fjord. It is also found in the western Atlantic Ocean from Baffin Island, Canada south to North Carolina.
Hagfish such as M. glutinosa feed on the carcasses of fishes, which they bore into through any available opening.[2] [1]
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