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Welcome to Animalias Stupendium. My name is Algomandanes Wizard to the four crowds. I checked inventor of the enchantomatic and tireless creature Chronicler. However, mere monsters hold no mystery for me. These days, borogs are boring, lindworms are lackluster. Instead, I turn my attention once more to the strange fauna of a land called Earth. Travel with me, gentle reader, as we consider the amazing courtship of the deep sea anglerfish common name anglerfish.
Scientific classification multiple species of the teleost order lopoformes, frequency and range deep sea environments worldwide in tropical to temperate latitudes, size up to four feet or one point two meters, diet crustaceans and small fish treasure Horde male breeding Partners Challenge rating three.
To be sure, there is no singular deep sea angler fish. In fact, there are more than two hundred known species. This includes the sea toads or coffin fish, as well as the black sea devils, among many others. These outrageous names, of course, dim from the sometimes froglike and sometimes frightening appearance of these bony fish. Meals can be scarce in the deep ocean, and so many species boast adaptations to
help them eat any suitable prey they might encounter. This includes large mouths, large stomachs, and long needlelike translucent teeth piercing damage. The anglerfish can also depress its long teeth at will to allow unobstructed travel down the predator's throat, and can likewise be raised again like the bars of
a cage, to prevent engulf prey from escaping. Anglerfish are ambush predators, and their name comes from the bioluminescent lure appendage, a modified ray fin that they can unsheathe to lure prey into gobbling range, so much like a glowing wizard's wand the lure is actually powered by symbiant photobacteria, which
reside in the lure by the millions. How they first acquire the bacteria long remained an open question, with scientists unsure if developing anglerfish encounter them in the open ocean or are inoculated with them by apparent during spawning, but some recent research points more toward the former. Either way, it would appear to be a mutually beneficial relationship, as the bacteria benefit from protection and nutrients as the angler
moves throughout its environment. But to day or to day is Valentine's Day, so we must speak the love language of the anglerfish. Mating check.
Again.
There are numerous anglerfish species to consider, but many species boast extreme sexual dimorphism. The female is larger and fiercer by a considerable margin, and the male's main purpose is to provide sperm for sexual reproduction. For black sea devils, the male is free swimming but doesn't even feed as an adult. In other species, the small male is parasitic in nature, attaching to the female's body and fusing with her. See. Just as prey encounters and the deep ocean are rare,
so two are mating matches. The miniature males put all their effort into seeking out and finding a potential mate, and then in some species attach themselves initially via a byte and eventually become a grafted on reproductive organ such devotion. In some species, a female may acquire multiple parasitic males. These males continue to live, but become entirely dependent on
the females for nutrients and blood. The upside for her is they don't take up much space, They require comparably little nourishment, and are ready to provide sperm whenever she is ready to reproduce. Their reproduction, by the way, is carried out externally via spawning. The female releases her eggs, the males release their sperm, and the fertilized eggs drift off in the water column. The males remain and are ready to help out the next time around as well.
There are more mysteries concerning the angler fish to consider, but for now I must retire my wizard's quill and allow my familiars some respite. But I shall return with even more wonders of the natural world. Hi, this is Robert Lamb. Thanks again to the Wizard Argo Mandanese for
joining us in this episode. Sources for this episode included Oshana dot Org, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Emily Osterroloft's The Bizarre Love Life of the Anglerfish, published on the website of the Natural History Museum, London, LK Wards Meet the tiny bacteria that give anglerfishes their spooky glow, published twenty sixteen on Smithsonian's Ocean and Krishna Ramanaja's study eliminates link between anglerfish Bacteria, published twenty nineteen on the Cornell Chronicle.
Thanks as always to the excellent JJ Possway for producing this episode, and if you wish to contact Agromandanese with recommendations for future episodes, you can send an email to contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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