image credit: zombots.net
image credit: ihatetheocean.blogspot.comHabitat: Deep Sea, Atlantic & Pacific
Status: Not listed
Most people have heard of the common Deep Sea Anglerfish or Fanfin Seadevil, because it looks like something out of a nightmare. But did you know that there’s such a thing as a Wolftrap Anglerfish?
These creatures are pretty hideous – they’re known as “complete anglerfish” because they contain all the necessary ingredients for one scary fish. I
ts lure apparatus consists of a fishing rod (the projecting basal bone or pteropterygium), a fishing line (the illicium, a modified dorsal fin ray), bait (the bioluminescent esca), and hooks (large dermal denticles).It’s also defined by its distinctive enormous upper jaw with premaxillaries that can be folded down to enclose the much shorter lower jaw.
That might sound confusing, but all you really need to understand is that it’s extremely ugly and scary looking.
