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Name : Pacific lamprey eel ( Entosphenus tridentatus )
Where it lives : Freshwater and marine ecosystem in the North Pacific , from California to Alaska , and across the Bering Sea to Russia and Japan
Instead of a jaw, lampreys have a sucker mouth that they use to latch onto prey.
What it feed : The ancestry and eubstance fluids of other fish , including Pacific Salmon River , flatfish , rockfish and Pacific hake
Why it ’s awesome : Lampreys go to a radical of ancient , jawless fish that develop over 450 million years ago during the Ordovician period ( 485 million to 444 million years ago ) . There areroughly 40 animation species of lampreysdotted across the humans . These eel - similar brute were darting up and down flow long before dinosaur and even trees be , and have survive at least fourmass extinctions .
Related : Barreleye fish : The bass - sea weirdo with rotate eyes and a see - through head
Pacific lampreys are boneless fish , and their skeletons are made solely of gristle . alternatively of a jaw , they have a patsy mouth rimmed with teeth , which they use to latch onto quarry and excerpt blood and body fluids . As far as scientist can narrate , lampreys do not eat flesh .
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Females put down up to 200,000 eggs in nests that they incubate in fresh piss for three to four weeks . Once the larvae crosshatch , they tunnel into the deposit and stay buried for up to a decennium . They emerge as juveniles and migrate downstream to the sea to feed , only returning to freshwater habitats several years later on to reproduce . adult , which grow up to 33 inches ( 84 centimeters ) long , can locomote century of mil inland in search of the staring spawning and erect maculation .
peaceable lamprey eel are very desirable prey for many species of bird , mammals and fish due to their highly fatty flesh , which contains three to five times as many kilogram calorie by weight as Salmon River . As such , they diddle an important role in fresh water and marine ecosystem .
