Most of us have never seen a prehistoric-looking lancetfish, and we probably never will.
That’s just as well, because they can grow to be 7-feet long, they have fang-like teeth, enormous eyes and a long, slithery body. They’re also cannibals, eating their own kind, and they have a fairly unusual sex life, in that they possess both male and female sex organs simultaneously.
Lancetfish also are extremely rare. Indeed, NOAA Fisheries reports that since 1982 they’ve only found two in the Gulf of Alaska, four near the Aleutian Islands, and ten in the Eastern Bering Sea.
But now lancetfish are turning up on beaches on the Pacific Coast, and marine scientists don’t know exactly why.
A deep-sea creature, lancetfish spend most of their time on the bottom of the ocean; they’re one of the largest species to roam the ocean floor.
But one washed up recently on a beach in Oregon and another on a beach near San Diego.
Dr. Elan Portner, a scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and a lancetfish expert, says they probably have been washing ashore periodically for the past 300 years or so, scaring people who find them.
Their genus name is Alepisaurus, which means “scaleless lizard,” because of their smooth skin.
Lancetfish have no commercial value; they purportedly taste awful, although sharks, tuna and other lancetfish apparently find them tasty enough.
They are also ambush predators, since their gelatinous muscles are not built for long chases. They hunt by floating quietly until their unsuspecting prey swims close enough to strike. Other than each other, their favorite food includes squid and octopus.
But scientists find them extremely hard to study, since they usually live so far underwater, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of them at any given time. Read more:
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/11-strange-true-facts-about-lancetfish
