animal Type
Maximum Size

30 cm

(12 inches)

Depth

200–1,500 m

(655–5,000 feet)

Habitat

Midwater

Diet

Small crustaceans, chaetognaths, and small fishes

Range

Northern Pacific Ocean

About

A big mouth isn’t an issue for this toothy predator.

Sleek, silvery, and adorned with modest bioluminescence along their bellies, Pacific viperfish (Chauliodus macouni) make fearsome predators for small fish and shrimp. They are among the countless marine animals that migrate each night from the ocean’s depths towards shallower surface waters to dine.

The Pacific viperfish’s needle-like teeth are the key to their hunting strategy. The two front fangs, which jut up from the fish’s bottom jaw past its own eyes, are especially dramatic. When viperfish unhinge their jaws, their mouths can open wide enough to engulf prey, while the teeth form a cage to prevent an escape.

 

Gallery

Video Clips

Publications

Choy, C.A., S.H.D. Haddock, and B.H. Robison. 2017. Deep pelagic food web structure as revealed by in situ feeding observations. Proc Biol Sci, 284: 1–10. http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.2116

Christiansen, S., H.J. Hoving, F. Schütte, H. Hauss, J. Karstensen, A. Körtzinger, S.M. Schröder, L. Stemmann, B. Christiansen, M. Picheral, P. Brandt, B. Robison, R. Koch, and R. Kiko. 2018. Particulate matter flux interception in oceanic mesoscale eddies by the polychaete Poeobius sp.. Limnology and Oceanography, 63: 2093–2109. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.10926

Uttal, L., and K.R. Buck. 1996. Dietary study of the midwater polychaete Poeobius meseres in Monterey Bay, California. Marine Biology, 125: 333–343. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00346314

News

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