According to experts, this strange behavior could help them search for food more easily.
Fisher fish. Photo: screenshot
The conditions below ocean They are not suitable for any species of animal: the darkness, cold and low pressure make it a terrain suitable for few species. The species that live there have developed systems to create their own Light with which they communicate, camouflage themselves or catch their prey.
Swimming in this inhospitable environment is what it is Angelfish (order Lophiiformes)are some sea creatures that have bait in their heads Illicium (similar to a fishing rod) with which they deceive their prey.
Fish. Photo/Twitter: @HaganeNoZukki
These fish do not expend energy searching for food, but instead place their food Bioluminescent bait and they simply wait for certain crustaceans and smaller fish to approach. Once they are close, all they have to do is open their mouth and close their large teeth to get their daily food. However, there are major doubts about this new species: Why do they fish upside down?
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Secret revealed?
In the words of ichthyologist Elizabeth Miller to the New York Times, this behavior is “goes beyond imagination“, as it may be more common than thought. At first, scientists thought fish fish had the bait under the face, as is the case with many smaller species. However, numerous video recordings taken in the depths of the oceans suggest the opposite.
As Andrew Stewart, curator of the Museum of New Zealand and lead author of a study published in the journal Fish Biology of fish of the genus Gigantactics in various locations in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, explained to National Geographic: “The length of…” The bait and the way it is attached to the muzzle mean that “Swimming backwards is the best way to ensure prey doesn’t escape and bite itself.”
Fisher fish. Photo: X @HealthyReefs
Next to the lower jaw It also features a band that allows it to open to the side, making it easier to wrap around prey when swimming upside down, Stewart explains.
The other decoy function
The bait is not only used to find food, they also use it for that purpose Couple. In adulthood it is female They develop large teeth and a shiny lure that they use to lure their prey.
The MenIn contrast, they lose their teeth and develop a series of teeth on the front tips of their jaws that are necessary for mating. They spend their entire lives searching for females through their burrows large nostrils and her extraordinary sense of smell.
This species has always been a big question for the scientific community and despite advances, there is still much to be answered. In the 1920s, an Icelandic biologist named Bjarni Saemundsson discovered the body of a female with smaller fish attached to her snout. He assumed they were her young and wrote of the discovery: “I cannot imagine how or when the larvae or the young attach themselves to the mother.” “I can't believe that the male attaches the egg to the female…This remains a mystery to be solved by future researchers.”
Fish. Photo: Unsplash
What Saemundsson didn't know was that the fish attached to the large female was not her offspring, but herself Couple. When a male finds a female, he uses his special teeth to do so Hold your stomach tight. After mating, the tissues of the male and female begin to fuse and their circulatory systems become connected.
On the other hand, in 1999, a remote-controlled submersible located in the depths of the ocean captured images of a specimen immobile, which was upside down. The researchers suspected that they were searching for prey on the seafloor, a hypothesis they were unable to test due to the rarity of similar cases. They couldn't imagine such sightings would be repeated years later on numerous occasions.
“Until now, much of what we knew about the biology and behavior of deep-sea organisms was derived from specimens captured and brought to the surface. dead specimens, So we had to do a lot of extrapolation on the flatter species,” says Stewart. “Dive boats have allowed us to observe these animals.” alive and intact. Now let's check that they don't behave like that we thoughtsomething exciting for those of us dedicated to the study of deep-sea fauna,” he concluded.