---
title: "What the sources say about the Atlantic Hagfish | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "50 claims from the Atlantic Hagfish profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/atlantic-hagfish-1.webp"
canonical: "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/atlantic-hagfish/sources/"
---

# What the sources say about the Atlantic Hagfish (*Myxine glutinosa*)

> 50 claims from the Atlantic Hagfish profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Atlantic Hagfish](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/atlantic-hagfish/)

## Myxine glutinosa (Linnaeus, 1758), Atlantic hagfish. FishBase.

https://fishbase.se/summary/Myxine-glutinosa.html

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Dead and dying fish, bored into for the viscera and musculature | Feeds chiefly on dead and dying fish of varying species by boring into the body and consuming viscera and musculature. |
| Muddy North Atlantic sea floors at 2 to 13°C (depths of 20 to 1,200 meters, usually 27 to 460) | depth range 20 - 1200 m [...] usually 27 - 460 m [...] Boreal; 2°C - 13°C [...] North Atlantic: Murmansk to the Mediterranean Sea; Greenland to USA. [...] Found on muddy bottoms where they hide in the mud. |
| dangerLevel: Low | Threat to humans Harmless |
| a jawless mouth, a single nostril, one pair of gill openings | Jawless mouth, single nasal aperture, only a single pair of external gill openings, no operculum or covering fold of skin. (note: "nostril" for the source's "nasal aperture", explained for an 11 to 14 year-old reader; same structure, no change of scope.) |
| A big adult reaches 95 centimeters, though a common length is 30 centimeters, or 40 for a female | Max length : 95.0 cm TL male/unsexed [...] common length : 30.0 cm TL male/unsexed [...] common length :40 cm TL (female) |
| Of the Atlantic hagfish, FishBase says that its slime is used for defense. | Slime is used for defense. |
| Atlantic hagfish range the North Atlantic, Greenland and the USA to Murmansk and down to the Mediterranean Sea (absent from its eastern end and the Black Sea), in 2 to 13°C water from 20 to 1,200 meters down. | depth range 20 - 1200 m [...] Boreal; 2°C - 13°C [...] North Atlantic: Murmansk to the Mediterranean Sea; Greenland to USA. Absent in eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. |
| It is the only hagfish in the northeast Atlantic. | Only hagfish in the Northeast Atlantic. |
| They hide in muddy bottoms | Found on muddy bottoms where they hide in the mud. |
| and are chiefly nocturnal | Chiefly nocturnal. |
| The diet is chiefly dead and dying fish, bored into for viscera and musculature | Feeds chiefly on dead and dying fish of varying species by boring into the body and consuming viscera and musculature. |

## Martini, Heiser & Lesser (1997). A population profile for Atlantic hagfish, Myxine glutinosa (L.), in the Gulf of Maine. Part I: Morphometrics and reproductive state. Fishery Bulletin (NOAA Fisheries).

https://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/pdf-content/1997/952/martini.pdf

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| juveniles may feed solely on invertebrates in the substrate | Juveniles may, for example, feed solely on invertebrates within the substrate. |
| barbels. Hagfish | with nose and barbels exposed to passing currents (note: claims the barbels only; the sentence lists them without describing their arrangement) |
| Behind the mouth there is no jaw, and the feeding apparatus is tooth cusp plates and a dental muscle complex. | The feeding apparatus, consisting of the tooth cusp plates and the dental muscle complex (note: jawlessness is FishBase's "Jawless mouth" on the same species page) |
| One Gulf of Maine sample averaged 51 centimeters (19.5 to 72.4) | Total length (mm) 509 104 195-724 (note: table row: mean 509 mm, SD 104, range 195-724 mm, n=202; converted to centimetres so the page keeps one unit throughout (509 mm = 50.9, rounded to 51; 195 mm = 19.5; 724 mm = 72.4).) |
| those over 35 centimeters had an average weight of 140 grams | the average weight for Gulf of Maine specimens greater than 350 mm was 140 g (note: 350 mm = 35 cm; converted so the page keeps one unit throughout.) |
| A Gulf of Maine survey counted 114 slime pores on average down the left side alone. | Total slime pores (left side) 114 7 91-128 (note: table row: mean 114 pores, SD 7, range 91-128, n=94) |
| usually in shallow burrows with nose and barbels in the current | Individual hagfish are usually found in shallow, sinusoidal, temporary burrows, with nose and barbels exposed to passing currents. |
| juveniles may feed solely on invertebrates in the substrate. | Juveniles may, for example, feed solely on invertebrates within the substrate. |
| How long one lives is not known: the Gulf of Maine population profile reports no data on life span or growth rates. | No data are available concerning the life span or growth rates for this species. |
| weightKg: 0.14 | the average weight for Gulf of Maine specimens greater than 350 mm was 140 g (note: task #592; 140 g = 0.14 kg, the average for the fishable size class in the Gulf of Maine population profile, and the only whole-animal average on record for the species. Light class (0.1 to 10 kg), where the name guess gave Medium. Not in a curated matchup) |

## Winegard & Fudge (2010). Deployment of hagfish slime thread skeins requires the transmission of mixing forces via mucin strands. Journal of Experimental Biology.

https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.038075

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| unravel a coiled
  fiber bundle into a thread a hundred times longer in a fraction of a second | Deployment of the thread skeins involves their unraveling in a fraction of a second from a 150 microm-long ellipsoid bundle to a thread that is 100x longer (note: Winegard & Fudge 2010 is the Atlantic hagfish study: Fudge & Schorno 2016 attributes it to Myxine glutinosa as reference 25) |
| Mucus vesicles mixed into seawater swell into long strands that attach to a thread bundle and transmit the forces that unravel it, turning a 150-micrometer coil into a thread a hundred times longer in a fraction of a second. | Deployment of the thread skeins involves their unraveling in a fraction of a second from a 150 microm-long ellipsoid bundle to a thread that is 100x longer [...] mucin vesicles mixed into seawater swell and elongate into high-aspect ratio mucin strands that attach to the thread skeins, transmit hydrodynamic forces to them |
| Mixed into seawater the mucus vesicles swell into long strands that attach to a fiber bundle and transmit the mixing forces into it, unraveling a coil barely 150 micrometers long into a thread a hundred times longer in a fraction of a second. Both the mixing and the mucus are required. | Deployment of the thread skeins involves their unraveling in a fraction of a second from a 150 microm-long ellipsoid bundle to a thread that is 100x longer [...] mixing and mucin vesicles are indeed crucial for skein unraveling [...] mucin vesicles mixed into seawater swell and elongate into high-aspect ratio mucin strands that attach to the thread skeins, transmit hydrodynamic forces to them |
| Each slime gland releases two things at once: tightly coiled bundles of protein fiber and vesicles of mucus. | The slime originates as a two-component glandular exudate comprised of coiled bundles of cytoskeletal intermediate filaments (thread skeins) and mucin vesicles. |

## Schorno, Gillis & Fudge (2018). Emptying and refilling of slime glands in Atlantic ( Myxine glutinosa ) and Pacific ( Eptatretus stoutii ) hagfishes. Journal of Experimental Biology.

https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.172254

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Emptied glands take three to four weeks to refill in both, though the Pacific hagfish recovers exudate at the faster absolute rate. | Complete refilling of slime glands for both species took 3-4 weeks, with Pacific hagfish achieving faster absolute rates of exudate recovery than Atlantic hagfish. |
| Completely refilling emptied slime glands takes three to four weeks in both Atlantic and Pacific hagfish, though lab comparisons found Pacific hagfish recover their exudate faster than their Atlantic relatives do. | Complete refilling of slime glands for both species took 3-4 weeks, with Pacific hagfish achieving faster absolute rates of exudate recovery than Atlantic hagfish. |

## Zintzen et al. (2011). Hagfish predatory behaviour and slime defence mechanism. Scientific Reports.

https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00131

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| A 2011 study put baited video units on the seafloor off New Zealand, 50 to 1,200 meters down. | At each location, videos were deployed during daylight hours at a series of depths from 50 to ~1,200 m, yielding a total of 165 deployments. (note: locations are off New Zealand (White Island, Great Barrier Island, Three Kings Islands); 2011 is the reference's publication year from Crossref, not restated in the body text) |
| The hagfish on those tapes were New Zealand species, not Atlantic hagfish. | In each case, the hagfish species under attack are denoted with numbers in brackets as follows: (1) Eptatretus cirrhatus (Forster in Bloch & Schneider, 1801), (2) Eptatretus sp.2 and (3) Neomyxine sp.1. |
| slime filled the mouth and gill chamber in under four-tenths of a second, the predators convulsed their gill arches in a gagging effort to clear it | slime secreted by hagfishes fills the mouth and gill chamber of their predators, acting as a very rapid (<0.4 sec) and effective defence mechanism [...] The predators convulsed their gill arches dramatically in a gagging-type effort to clear the slime from their gill chambers. |
| In 14 recorded incidents, catsharks, spiny dogfish and conger eels were clearly repelled | we observed 14 separate incidents where predators were clearly repelled by hagfish slime [...] Scyliorhinidae – Catsharks [...] Squalidae – Spiny dogfishes [...] Congridae – Conger eels |
| and could not acquire their prey | Biters (sharks, conger eels) and suckers (wreckfishes, scorpionfishes) could not successfully acquire their potential hagfish prey. |
| The hagfish, in all cases, appeared to sustain no injury, often carrying on feeding. | The hagfishes, in all cases, appeared to sustain no injury, often continuing to feed on the bait |
| it comes from New Zealand hagfish species, not the Atlantic hagfish | In each case, the hagfish species under attack are denoted with numbers in brackets as follows: (1) Eptatretus cirrhatus (Forster in Bloch & Schneider, 1801), (2) Eptatretus sp.2 and (3) Neomyxine sp.1. |
| A 2011 baited-camera study found catsharks, spiny dogfish and conger eels | List of predatory fish species, recorded and observed in video footage, whose gills were clogged by hagfish slime. [...] Scyliorhinidae – Catsharks [...] Squalidae – Spiny dogfishes [...] Congridae – Conger eels (note: 2011 is the reference's publication year from Crossref, not restated in the paper's body text) |
| could not successfully acquire their hagfish prey | Biters (sharks, conger eels) and suckers (wreckfishes, scorpionfishes) could not successfully acquire their potential hagfish prey. |
| slime filled the mouth and gill chamber in under four-tenths of a second, and the predators convulsed their gill arches in a gagging effort to clear it. | slime secreted by hagfishes fills the mouth and gill chamber of their predators, acting as a very rapid (<0.4 sec) and effective defence mechanism [...] The predators convulsed their gill arches dramatically in a gagging-type effort to clear the slime from their gill chambers. |

## Fudge & Schorno (2016). The Hagfish Gland Thread Cell: A Fiber-Producing Cell Involved in Predator Defense. Cells.

https://doi.org/10.3390/cells5020025

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Defensive slime that unravels into gill-clogging protein thread in a fraction of a second | One of the primary functions of hagfish slime is to deter fish predators by clogging their gills [...] the coiled thread (or skein) they produce unravels in a fraction of a second after being ejected from the slime gland (note: gill-clogging is stated for hagfish slime as a group; FishBase states at species level that the Atlantic hagfish's "Slime is used for defense") |
| Provoke it and striated muscle squeezes the slime gland, firing coiled protein thread that unravels in a fraction of a second. | When provoked, the striated muscle around the gland (M) contracts, forcing the two cell types out through the gland pore (P) into the surrounding seawater, where they form into whole slime within a fraction of a second |
| Each gland behind them holds thread cells packed with coiled bundles of protein fiber, and mucus cells; striated muscle squeezes both into the seawater when the animal is provoked. | Hagfish slime glands, which are continuous with the skin (S), produce two main slime secretory cell types, the gland thread cells (GTCs) and gland mucus cells (GMCs). When provoked, the striated muscle around the gland (M) contracts, forcing the two cell types out through the gland pore (P) into the surrounding seawater (note: "coiled bundles of protein fiber" is winegard-fudge-2010's "coiled bundles of cytoskeletal intermediate filaments (thread skeins)") |
| Clogging the gills of fish predators is one of the primary functions of hagfish slime, and the threads keep a predator from flushing it out. | One of the primary functions of hagfish slime is to deter fish predators by clogging their gills [...] The threads lend mechanical coherence to the slime, and also help prevent the predator from being able to flush the slime off via vigorous movements of the gill opercula. |
| Atlantic hagfish skeins need both vigorous mixing and mucus to unravel, while Pacific hagfish skeins come undone spontaneously | In the Atlantic hagfish, Myxine glutinosa , unravelling is driven by external forces acting on the skein. Specifically, vigorous mixing and the presence of mucus are both required for unraveling to proceed [...] In contrast, skeins from the Pacific hagfish, Eptatretus stoutii , do not require vigorous mixing or the presence of mucus; unraveling proceeds spontaneously |

## Bradshaw & Allison (2022). Hagfish to Illuminate the Developmental and Evolutionary Origins of the Vertebrate Retina. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2022.822358

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Hagfish and lampreys are the most ancient extant vertebrates | the most ancient extant vertebrates, the hagfish and lamprey |
| the hagfish eye is strikingly rudimentary: no lens, no pigment | hagfish eyes are strikingly rudimentary [...] Hagfish eyes also lack a lens and pigment (features found in the eyes of all other living vertebrates) |
| in the genus *Myxine* buried under a layer of muscle | Their diminutive eyes are covered by a layer of semi-transparent skin (Genus Eptatretus ) or a layer of muscle (Genus Myxine ) |
| possibly a photoreceptive organ for circadian timing rather than image formation | the hagfish eye may represent a more ancestral photoreceptive organ for circadian entrainment rather than image formation |

## Subramanian, Ross & MacKinnon (2009). Myxinidin, A Novel Antimicrobial Peptide from the Epidermal Mucus of Hagfish, Myxine glutinosa L. Marine Biotechnology.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-009-9189-y

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| myxinidin, a 12-amino-acid peptide from this species' mucus, killed a broad range of bacteria and yeast pathogens, two to 16 times more effectively than the potent fish peptide pleurocidin against most of those screened | a novel antimicrobial peptide, myxinidin, from the acidic epidermal mucus extract of hagfish (Myxine glutinosa L.) [...] myxinidin consists of 12 amino acids [...] Myxinidin showed activity against a broad range of bacteria and yeast pathogens [...] two to 16 times more active than a potent fish-derived antimicrobial peptide, pleurocidin (NRC-17), against most of the screened pathogens |
| The mucus doubles as an immune barrier | Fish epidermal mucus contains innate immune components that provide a first line of defense against various infectious pathogens. |

## Mincarone (2013). Myxine glutinosa. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e.T196057A8988080.

https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2011-1.rlts.t196057a8988080.en

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Least Concern | Least Concern (LC) (note: category read through GBIF's copy of the Red List; FishBase's mirror of Red List version 2025-2 shows the same category, assessed 12 November 2009, so it is still current) |
| The IUCN lists it as Least Concern. | Least Concern (LC) (note: category read through GBIF's copy of the Red List) |