About Hagfishes

Myxiniformes are the hagfishes — eel-shaped, jawless marine scavengers.

Morphology. They have a rounded snout with 1–16 pairs of tentacles around a single nasal opening that opens into the pharynx (their nostril connects to the throat). They lack true eyes, fins, and a vertebral column (only a notochord). Their signature defence is ejecting copious, rapid-expanding slime.

Habitat & distribution. Deep, cold marine mud and silt worldwide; they burrow into carcasses, eating them from the inside out with horny tooth plates.

Ecology. Important benthic recyclers of carrion on the ocean floor.