White-headed hagfish | |
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Scientific classification
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Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Infraphylum: | Agnatha |
Class: | Myxini |
Order: | Myxiniformes |
Family: | Myxinidae |
Genus: | Myxine |
Species: | M. ios
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Binomial name | |
Myxine ios
Fernholm, 1981
|
The white-headed hagfish (Myxine ios) is a species of jawless fish of the family Myxinidae (hagfish). [2] [3] [4]
Its scientific name alludes to the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (IOS), Wormley, Surrey, which supplied the holotype. [5]
Myxine ios is a marine bathydemersal fish, [6] living at depths of 614–1,625 m (2,014–5,331 ft). It is non-migratory, living in the North Atlantic waters off Iceland, Ireland and the western Sahara. [7] [8]
The white-headed hagfish may grow up to 57 centimetres (1.87 ft) long. [5] It is a seven- gilled hagfish; it can be distinguished from related species by its large number of tooth cusps: between 44 and 51. [9] The Irish M. ios population is distinguished from the southern variety by its white head and whitish middorsal or midventral line. [10]
M. ios is a scavenger of dead or disabled fish, which it bores into. Its eggs are large, 2–3 centimetres (0.79–1.18 in). [11]
White-headed hagfish | |
---|---|
Scientific classification
![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Infraphylum: | Agnatha |
Class: | Myxini |
Order: | Myxiniformes |
Family: | Myxinidae |
Genus: | Myxine |
Species: | M. ios
|
Binomial name | |
Myxine ios
Fernholm, 1981
|
The white-headed hagfish (Myxine ios) is a species of jawless fish of the family Myxinidae (hagfish). [2] [3] [4]
Its scientific name alludes to the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (IOS), Wormley, Surrey, which supplied the holotype. [5]
Myxine ios is a marine bathydemersal fish, [6] living at depths of 614–1,625 m (2,014–5,331 ft). It is non-migratory, living in the North Atlantic waters off Iceland, Ireland and the western Sahara. [7] [8]
The white-headed hagfish may grow up to 57 centimetres (1.87 ft) long. [5] It is a seven- gilled hagfish; it can be distinguished from related species by its large number of tooth cusps: between 44 and 51. [9] The Irish M. ios population is distinguished from the southern variety by its white head and whitish middorsal or midventral line. [10]
M. ios is a scavenger of dead or disabled fish, which it bores into. Its eggs are large, 2–3 centimetres (0.79–1.18 in). [11]