📸 PhotoPhoto: by Junho Jung at Flickr from South Korea · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Inshore hagfish
Eptatretus burgeri (Inshore hagfish · ヌタウナギ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its body length of 60 cm equals the length of two 30 cm student rulers placed end to end (Comparison).
- 💡 Its body length of 60 cm is about 1 third of an adult human height (about 1.7 m) (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Inshore hagfish is an eel-like jawless hagfish that lives buried in muddy sea bottoms. On the IUCN Red List, it is assessed as Near Threatened (NT, 2011).
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its eyes are small and buried under the skin, and it has 3 pairs of fleshy barbels around its nostril and mouth. It has 6 pairs of gill openings behind the head and lacks dorsal and anal fins.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It is highly active at night and attaches to other fishes to burrow into and feed on them. Around August to October, it lays eggs on the sea bottom.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
The National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR) explains that it inhabits coastal waters from central Korea southward, and notes that globally it is distributed in Japan.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List NT (2011) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/196016/8992245
- • IUCN Red List category NT — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 6FZ3Z
- • iucnredlist.org — 8992245
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000085236 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000085236
- • wikidata.org — Q848385
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Korea-Busan-Haeundae Market-Inshore hagfish-04.jpg
- • species.nibr.go.kr — mainHome.do
- • fishbase.se — Eptatretus-burgeri.html
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Christoph Schomburg · CC0 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.