Feb 1, 2025
Snipe eels are so selfish. I mean, who the heck needs 750 vertebrae! Leave some spine bones for the rest of us! >:|
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Snipe eels are so selfish. I mean, who the heck needs 750 vertebrae! Leave some spine bones for the rest of us! >:|
Have you ever seen an eel irl? Don't they have funny little teeth?
my eel brain actually started with me volunteering to assist on an eel feed at the pūkaha wildlife centre. knee-deep in large, writhing beasts trying to get at the food in my hands, i fell in love.
you're right, the longfin eels teeth are so small! you've got to look really close because it kinda looks like it's just a rough texture:
but that isn't the only type of eel teeth! Viper eels have a pretty iconic set of teeth
they feed on slippery critters so need some good grippers, while a moray like the snowflake eel which eats more crustaceans will have flatter teeth for crushing:
snipe eels have backwards facing teeth! you might have to squint to see these because theyre so tiny, but they function similar to a pythons- once you get in it'll be incredibly damaging to get out!
Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Volume 4: Fishes I. Illustration by Wilhelm Eigener.
EXCUSE ME HOW HAVE I NOT LEARNED OF THE EXISTENCE OF SNIPE EELS BEFORE NOW THESE GUYS ARE INSANE
What do you need to be that long for, bud
Snipe Eel
The snipe eel's upper and lower jaws are extremely long and curve away from each other at the tips. This means that they don't meet when the eel closes its mouth. These curved jaws help the eel to catch its food. The jaws are covered with tiny hooked teeth that help capture tiny shrimp and other crustaceans. As the eel swims along with its mouth open, tiny backward-pointing teeth snag the antenna of the shrimp.
The males differ from the females in that as they grow older, their jaws shorten and they lose their teeth. Because of this difference, researchers originally thought that the males and females were actually from different species.
Video Source
The Quizzer Book of Knowledge: Nature. Written and edited by George Beal. 1978.
Internet Archive
Arthur Twidle (1865-1936)
The Superbook of Animals. Written by Ron Taylor. 1986.