Welcome to brain Stuff, the production of I Heart Radio. Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren Boga bam here. Anglerfish have got an angle all right, but it's probably not to win anyone over with their intensely toothy looks. Or rather, their end game is to attract their prey using a form of fishing known as angling. Oh we're an angle, which is a sort of bony hook. Protrusion is used to lure in and catch an unsuspecting fish. That's right, just like
a fisherman sitting with a pole in hand. Anglerfish do indeed fish, except they do it from the ocean floor. No tackle boxer bait needed. The carnivorous female anglerfish wait patiently in the depths of the sparsely populated deep sea to literally lure in their next meal. They wiggle and angle a rod like extension of their dorsal spine that
protrudes from their head and amidst light. Once their prey comes close, the female strikes and stags them, using her large, pointy teeth to chomp them up, even if they're up to twice her size and in. Scientists captured images of a female with numerous thin filaments extending from her body In addition to her main dorsal appendage, these filaments also emit light, creating a bioluminescent web of whiskers to attract
and surround their prey. Some species of anglerfish live in more shallow tropical waters, but the ones that pique the interests of scientists are those that live in the deep, murky depths of the ocean, some as deep as sixteen thousand feet or five thousand meters. For the article this
episode is based on how Stuff Work. Spoke via email with Ted Pich, a professor at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington and author of Oceanic Anglerfish is Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea and whose name I hope I pronounced correctly. He's been studying the elusive anglerfish almost his entire career. He said, there are about a hundred and sixty six species so far,
but new ones are still coming up. They live so deep that we don't really have a good idea of how big they actually get. We send nets down to collect them, and the deeper we go, the larger specimens come up. But how do they manage to stay so close to the ocean floor at such depths. Pich shares that most anglerfish, along with some other deep sea fish, don't have a swim bladder. That's the gas filled sack that helps many fish stay afloat without the need to
constantly swim. The lack of a swim bladder not only helps anglerfish stay near the bottom, it also conserves energy, energy that's at a premium given the difficulty of finding a meal so far down. Female anglerfish are definitely running the deep sea show, Piche explained. Most females aren't much larger than your fist, but other species are close to
four feet that's one point two meters long. A male angler fish, on the other hand, is usually an inch two and a half centimeter are so long in the most extreme cases, the female is sixty times the length and about half a million times as heavy as the male. The male, who has no way to feed itself, must rely completely on the female for survival. A male will actually merge with a female, not because they're in love,
a Piche said. They the males have tiny pincher like teeth on the tip of their snout and they bite on to the female. The blood flow from the female to the male provides the nutrients if they don't find a female their toast. The scientists believe the female emits alluring pheromones that the male can sniff out with his proportionately large nostrils. Their relationship really is quite unique. A Pipe said, these are the only animals in the world
that attach permanently and exchange fluid. Scientists note that the size difference is a survival mechanism that allows them to thrive on the limited deep sea menu. If they were both large, it would take a whole lot more food and enter g to keep them alive and keep their unique reproductive cycle going. While the female has to carry the little guy around and keep him fed, she's also getting a pretty good deal out of it too. There's no need to put herself out there to attract a
loyal partner. She's got a sperm bank or two, or three or even six available to fertilize her eggs. Luckily, for anglerfish and the ecosystem, you won't find them making an appearance on anyone's dinner plate. And it's not just because they're elusive and scary to look at. Piche says, they're fatty and oily composition wouldn't make for a very tasty meal. Well, that is, unless you're talking to a
sperm whale. Anglerfish remains have been found in whale stomachs and they seem to be the main predator of the larger anglerfish species. While it's extremely challenging to find angler fish and there's still somewhat of a mystery, scientists are entering a new realm of studying their behavior, and while scary looking teeth and dismaying face may not look appealing to most of us humans, they continue to light up the deep sea, attracting an oh so lucky male anglerfish
right along with their next deep sea dinner. Today's episode is based on the article the deep Ocean anglerfish catches Prey with the Lure on its Head on how stuff works dot Com, written by Katie Carmen. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.