image credit: blogaquatic.blogspot.com
image credit: kosfic.chonnam.ac.kr
image credit: jacobtanenbaum.com
image credit: afsc.noaa.gov
image credit: blueanimalbio.com
image credit: storymillernoaa2010tas.blogspot.comHabitat: found in the cold waters of the Arctic, North Atlantic, and North Pacific oceans
Status: Not evaluated
Now here’s a creature from the black lagoon if I ever saw one! This is the Smooth Lumpsucker (Aptocyclus ventricosus), the Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker’s fat and ugly cousin.
These guys are very appropriately named, with their drab coloration and not exactly pageant-ready appearance with those bulbous lumps. The sucker part of its name is derived from the modified pelvic fins which have evolved into suction-cup like discs that the Smooth Lumpsuckers use to attach themselves to rocks (see the 2nd to last picture).
I still think these guys deserve a hug 🙂
