But on other species of anglerfish with parasitic males, Robison has seen as many as 11 males hanging off of one female. The sea devil Robison captured didn't have any attached males. The male provides sperm while the female sustains him. "Once he finds her, he bites on and their tissues fuse," he explains. So the males have to find a female as soon as possible. The females can grow to about the size of a baseball, but the males are much smaller and incapable of existing on their own for long, Robison says. Sea devils are also known because the males are parasites. She coughed up remnants of both when they put her in a tank on the research ship. This particular specimen had eaten a black dragonfish and what looked like a deep-sea smelt prior to capture, Robison says. ( See more pictures of deep-sea creatures.) This modified fin glows at the tip, and the sea devil uses it to attract prey. Perhaps the fish's most prominent feature-made famous in the Disney/Pixar movie Finding Nemo-is the lure. Scientists aren't even sure how long they live. Very little is known about black sea devils, which belong to the genus Melanocetus. The anglerfish also appeared to be breathing more than expected, given its build, Robison added. "One of the first things that we got back from ichthyologists was astonishment at how uses its dorsal fin to swim," he says. Having a living animal to study is telling scientists so much more than they could ever have gotten from the dead, preserved specimens floating around various research facilities, Robison explains. "It came up in absolutely perfect condition," he says. The scientists were then able to bring her up to the surface alive-no mean feat-and have been monitoring the fish ever since.īruce Robison, a deep-sea ecologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, has brought up sea devils from the deep before, but never with an ROV. (See also rare footage of the deep-sea oarfish.)Ī team using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in the Monterey Bay Canyon spied this 3.5-inch-long (9 centimeter) black sea devil about 1,900 feet (580 meters) deep. With its gaping mouth, needle-sharp teeth, and slightly startled expression, the black sea devil anglerfish seems tailor-made for the spotlight.Īnd in fact, one particular female got her close-up on November 17 when researchers got footage of this rare anglerfish-the first time this species has been filmed alive and in its natural habitat-off of central California.
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