Previously, there was a car accident on the road in western Oregon in the western United States, and the piles of "goods" on the car poured out, and the scene instantly became a "coiled wire hole", so that the section of the highway was urgently closed. Witnesses at the scene said that "every 'big earthworm' is desperately struggling and spewing mucus, everything is unbelievable, it is really disgusting."
In fact, this is a car transporting hagfish, which were originally intended to be exported, but now they can only be disposed of...
What is a hagfish?
Hagfish belong to the order Oryctidae, a low-grade chordous organism of the order Hagfish. It is found in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Sea of Japan and the southern coast of China, and generally lives below 100 meters above sea surface. It is slender, somewhat shaped like a river eel, with a mouth like an oval suction cup with sharp yellow teeth inside. The gills of the hawk are sac-shaped, there are 6 pairs, the inner gill foramen are connected to the pharynx, and the outer gill hole is far from the mouth and opens outward, so that the front part of its body goes deep into the host tissue without affecting breathing.
Due to the long-term parasitism in the fish, its eyes have degenerated and hidden under the skin, and the sense of smell and the tactile sensation of the 4 pairs of tentacles at the end of the mouth are very sensitive, and can quickly perceive the arrival of large fish. The skin has no scales, it's like "wearing a loose layer of socks". Different species of hagfish also have different skin tones, spanning a wide range from pink to blue-gray. There is also a well-developed capillary network on the skin, allowing them to "breathe" through the skin in the dirt and through the soil.
The hagfish generally feeds on some tiny crustaceans or plankton, but it also eats fish, it uses suction cups to adsorb into the big fish, drills into the fish from the gills, bites the internal organs and muscles in the stomach, leaving only the skin and bones of the fish, excreting while eating, and finally biting through the abdomen of the big fish, breaking out of the hole. It eats so much that a hagfish spends seven hours in the belly of a large fish, can eat 18 times heavier than itself, and sometimes even eats a fish with only skin and bones left. Someone once found 123 hagfish in the body of a cod, and the cod's internal organs had been eaten.
It's not enough to eat meat with their mouths, they can also absorb nutrients directly through the skin. The salt concentration in the tissues of hagfish is the same as the seawater in the sea where they live, which means that dissolved substances can pass through their skin. Chris Glover, a physiologist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, conducted an experiment in which a piece of hagfish skin was taken, stretched out and put into a bottle, with a solution similar to seawater on one side of the skin and a solution similar to the body fluid of a hawk eel on the other. On the seawater side, radioactive amino acids, sugars and food colors are added to test the permeability of the hagfish's skin. After a few hours, the hagfish skin begins to become radioactive, however, the food pigment is not transmitted, suggesting that the hagfish skin can choose to absorb nutrients.
Based on what is currently happening, we know very little about the reproduction of hagfish. They are only known as hermaphrodites, but are still separated in physiological function, in the larvae of the hagfish, the anterior part of the reproductive glands is the ovary, the posterior part is the sperm nest, if the front end is developed and the posterior end is degenerated, it is female; conversely, it is male. They do not have mating organs, so people have concluded that their eggs are fertilized organs, but there is still no more accurate study of how the fertilization mechanism is.
They can only lay a small number of eggs (possibly fewer than 30), about 2.5 cm long, oval in shape, with sticky tufts of hairs at the posterior end, which can connect the eggs to each other and attach them to the seafloor. Fertilized eggs can develop directly into small eels without metamorphosis. About 2 months after the eggs are laid, the newborn hagfish will break out of the thin area near the rear end.
They do not have a juvenile stage (in stark contrast to lamprey eels) and have an unknown lifespan, which scientists speculate has a longer lifespan.
The hagfish follows the principle that even if you don't look disgusting, you must use practical actions to disgust you, and as soon as you feel threatened, you will release a lot of mucus, slimy, slippery, and pulling continuously. That's why there's the scene at the beginning of the highway...
The reaction of mucus to water hinders the activity of predatory fish gills, thus forming an effective and unique protective mechanism.
The mucus of hagfish differs from other animals in that in addition to the slippery mucin, there are also fine protein fibers inside, which help to improve the strength and adhesion of the mucus.
Mucus generates very fast! A hagfish can produce enough mucus to block 20L of water in a matter of minutes. The mucus is discharged through the contraction of the glands on both sides of the abdomen, which quickly merges with hydration to form a polymer with a mass fraction of about 0.004%, allowing the hagfish to leave a large piece of mucus behind it, helping to disperse predator attacks on it. The protective material is reinforced by fibers, which are initially micro-bundles of long fibers (15 cm long) and disperse as soon as they are discharged.
So sticking them doesn't stick to themselves?
After releasing the mucus, the hagfish will make a circle of its body, and then pass through the circle to get rid of its own mucus and escape smoothly.
The principle is that when the mucus is subjected to shear force, the proteins in it will be entangled and gathered together, the jelly-like structure will be destroyed, and the viscosity will decrease significantly.
Scientists are intrigued by its mucus, which the U.S. Navy has previously successfully synthesized and planned to use as a weapon for combat, as it can incapacitate or even suffocate targets. At the same time, the research team also believes that this slime can play a role in more areas, such as making body armor, wetsuits, extinguishing fires, or becoming a substitute for petroleum refined materials.
Here are your biggest concerns!! Hagfish is so cute ~ of course you can eat ~ At present, South Korea eats it more, for charcoal grilling, sauce roasting, spicy stir-fry are very suitable ~ interested friends can try it Oh ~