What's this about oarfish mouths?
so most bony fish mouths all work pretty much the same way, which is that the actual mouth is a fairly delicate structure that’s normally folded up inside the fish’s face like an accordion. and when the fish sees something it wants to eat/intimidate/smooch gently, it extends the mouth and literally launches its jaws forward out of its face and at its target.
“oh dang, I am just a normal fish going about my normal fish day.”
“HEY YOU GIMME SMOOCH”
and Oarfish are no exception! their version of fish origamiface is just a little more... extreme. like someone tried to make a paper crane while drunk, and also possessed by a demon. normally their faces are folded up all politelike like this,
but when they see something delicious....
*SHOOMP*
this exploding-face trick creates a low-pressure zone inside of the Oarfish’s mouth, which forcibly sucks in any shrimp/small fish/souls of drowned sailors that are in the Suction Zone. these goodies are immediately swallowed as the Oarfish puts its face back together and goes back to being not a nightmare alien creature.
“hello friend, it is me, Normal Fish!”
and sure, there are definitely fish out there with WAY more extreme mouth extension than the Oarfish! but those fish are not also 50 foot long earthquake-predicting mirror sea serpents that spend their time hanging vertically in the deep ocean like they’re pretending to be a support column.
we love you, Oarfish, never change.
