Sloane's Viperfish

• GeneralIts fangs are too long for its mouth; it fishes with a glowing lure.
• anatomíaIts teeth are so long in proportion to its skull that it cannot fully close its mouth, and it uses bioluminescent photophores to lure prey in total darkness.
• To swallow large prey it unhinges its jaw and tilts its head back; the first pair of teeth is so long that it passes outside the eyes.
• Every night it makes a vertical migration of hundreds of metres, one of the greatest daily journeys in the animal kingdom relative to body size.
• It makes a daily vertical migration: by day it stays between 500 and 2,500 m and at night rises into shallower water, where there is more food.
• It can open its jaws to 90 degrees by tilting its skull backwards, and prey up to half its own weight has been documented.
• It regulates the brightness of the photophores on its belly to erase its silhouette from predators looking upwards.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bony fish)

Habitat and environment

The mesopelagic zone (500-2,500 m)

Sexual maturity

Females mature between 13.3 and 19.1 cm; males somewhat earlier

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Chauliodus sloani