Slippery Surprises: Top 9 Fun Facts About the Bizarre Hagfish You Never Knew!

1. Cupid of the Sea

Who needs Cupid when you have hagfish? These slippery love gurus give new meaning to "having a heart in the right place": Hagfish possess several accessory hearts, including the portal and caudal hearts, which help pump blood through the liver and return venous blood to the branchial heart, compensating for their low arterial blood pressure.
Source => sciencedirect.com

2. Slime Superhero Hagfish

Hagfish: the ultimate slime superheroes that slime their way out of danger, leaving their predators baffled and gasping for breath. Picture Spiderman escaping a villain, but a lot slimier and a lot more fishy: That's the hagfish slime in action, not only eluding predators by clogging their gills but also holding incredible potential for medical applications due to its impressive water-absorbing and expansion abilities.
Source => asknature.org

Did you know moray eels have a gnarly second set of jaws, perfect for devouring large prey like crabs, shrimp, octopus, and squid? Learn how these apex predators rock the reef with their unique dental equipment!

=> Fun Facts about Moray-Eels

3. Slimy Escape Artists

Hagfish: natures' slimy little escape artists, giving creatures of the deep a run for their money in the gooey-glocks department! The hilarious truth: These spineless sea-dwellers produce copious amounts of slime from their skin glands, resulting in a slippery shield that clogs predators' gills and forces them to let go. In one infamous 2017 incident, a truckload of hagfish spilled onto a road, creating a slimefest worthy of a Nickelodeon show finale.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

4. Cutting-edge Slime Fibers

In a move sure to make your gummy shark candy jealous, these spineless, jawless wonders are on the slimy cutting edge of the fiber revolution: Hagfish slime fibers boast both incredible strength and flexibility, allowing scientists to explore their potential in earth-friendly biomimetic engineering, all while they exude nearly a liter of the goop in mere seconds!
Source => pnas.org

5. Nutrient-absorbing Skin Buffet

Who needs utensils when you've got skin and gills, am I right?: Hagfish, our ancient slimy cousins, have a remarkable skill of absorbing nutrients directly through their skin and gills, feasting on dead animals using their entire body as one fascinatingly gross digestive system.
Source => nbcnews.com

6. Sponge-like Skin Feasting

Who needs a mouth when you have skin like a sponge? Hagfish take "You are what you eat" to a whole new level: These slippery creatures are capable of absorbing nutrients directly through their skin, according to researchers from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, making them one of the few animals on earth to chow down without opening up for a bite.
Source => science.org

7. Knot-tying Houdini Fish

Houdini has nothing on these slippery escape artists who laugh in the face of danger, particularly shark bites, and tie themselves into knots only a sailor would envy: Hagfish are equipped with loose skin that isn't tightly connected to their muscles and organs, allowing them to wriggle through tight spaces and scoff at attacks while cleverly using four simple body movements to tear flesh off dead or rotting carcasses.
Source => science.org

8. Evolution's Blind Eye Trick

Fossilize my eyes and call me blind: Hagfish, those renowned slime-slingers of the deep, once boasted a fully functional pair of peepers around 300 million years ago, according to fossil findings in Illinois. However, evolution turned a blind eye to their sight, leaving these squiggly sea noodles to navigate without vision for eons!
Source => dailymail.co.uk

9. Hagfish: Ocean Vacuum & Eco-friendly Innovator

Slimier than marshmallow fluff and knottier than a tangled earphone cable, the hagfish is here to remind us that appearances can be deceiving: this slippery scamp is not only an essential oceanic vacuum cleaner, but its gooey secretion holds promising potential for medical breakthroughs and the future of eco-friendly fabrics.
Source => adfg.alaska.gov