---
title: "What the sources say about the Sea Lamprey | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "60 claims from the Sea Lamprey profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
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# What the sources say about the Sea Lamprey (*Petromyzon marinus*)

> 60 claims from the Sea Lamprey profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Sea Lamprey](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/sea-lamprey/)

## Petromyzon marinus (eel sucker). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Petromyzon_marinus/

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| North Atlantic and Mediterranean coastal waters | Sea lampreys can also be found along the Atlantic coast of Europe as far north as Norway and ranging as far south as the Mediterranean |
| Blood and body fluids of host fish | Animal Foods fish blood body fluids |
| from salmon and trout | Species Used as Host salmon Salmo salar lake trout Salvelinus namaycush rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss |
| adults can weigh up to 2.5 kilograms | Adults can weigh up to 2.5 kg. |
| The sea lamprey does not seem to prefer any one host | This species is capable of attaching itself to a variety of species of fish and does not seem to have a preference of host species. |
| its recorded hosts range from salmon and lake trout to whitefish and walleye | Species Used as Host salmon Salmo salar lake trout Salvelinus namaycush rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis chubs Gila ditaenia burbot Lota iota walleye Sander vitreus |
| Spawning is its last act | Sea lampreys die soon after spawning. |
| Its digestive system disintegrates and it cannot feed | disintegration of the digestive system; adult sea lampreys cannot feed while spawning |
| both sexes die soon after the female lays 30,000 to 100,000 eggs and the male fertilizes them | A female then lays 30,000 to 100,000 eggs, which the male externally fertilizes. Both male and female adult sea lampreys float away and die soon after spawning. |
| Their whole skeleton is cartilage | their entire skeleton is cartilaginous |
| They are even classed as vertebrates while lacking actual vertebrae | Although classified in the subphylum Vertebrata, this species lacks vertebrae |
| dangerLevel: Low | In one case, a sea lamprey bit a human, though this is thought to have been accidental. (note: one accidental bite on record: effectively harmless to people.) |
| weightKg: 1.8 | Range mass 1 to 2.5 kg (note: midpoint of the ADW adult range; Light class either way.) |

## Petromyzon marinus Linnaeus, 1758. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database / NOAA Great Lakes Aquatic Nonindigenous Species Information System.

https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/greatlakes/FactSheet.aspx?SpeciesID=836&Potential=N&Type=1&HUCNumber=DHuron

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| armed with a sucker mouth ringed in rasping teeth | a large round sucker-like mouth ringed with small, sharp teeth that act as a rasp along with a file-like tongue |
| plus North America's Great Lakes | Lamprey was first discovered in Lake America in 1835, Lake Erie in 1921, Lake Michigan in 1936, Lake Huron in 1937, and Lake Superior in 1946 |
| with spawning runs up freshwater rivers | Generally marine but ascends freshwater rivers to spawn. |
| A jawless, sucker-like mouth ringed with small, sharp teeth that act as a rasp, plus a file-like tongue | The sea lamprey is a jawless cartilaginous fish ... a large round sucker-like mouth ringed with small, sharp teeth that act as a rasp along with a file-like tongue |
| They have no jaws | The sea lamprey is a jawless cartilaginous fish |
| a round, sucker-like mouth ringed with small, sharp teeth that work like a rasp, plus a file-like tongue | a large round sucker-like mouth ringed with small, sharp teeth that act as a rasp along with a file-like tongue |
| Sea-run adults can reach 120 centimetres (about four feet), while landlocked lampreys such as those in North America's Great Lakes reach 64 centimetres | Size: 120 cm anadromous; 64 cm landlocked (note: maximum sizes from Page and Burr; 'sea-run' glosses 'anadromous'. NAS names the Great Lakes populations as the ones that spend their middle stage in a freshwater lake.) |
| native to North America's Atlantic coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Florida, and to Europe's Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean | Atlantic Coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the St. Johns River, Florida; Atlantic Coast of Europe and Mediterranean Sea |
| a blind, worm-like larva called an ammocoete, which burrows into a stream bottom, usually silt or sand, and filter-feeds on algae and detritus | The blind, worm-like larval lamprey, known as ammocoetes ... usually silt or sand stream bottoms and banks in slower-moving stretches of water -- they burrow in and take up residence, filter-feeding on algae, detritus and microscopic organisms |
| It may stay a larva for anywhere from three to seventeen years | Lampreys may stay in this larval form from 3-17 years. |
| As it matures it grows eyes and its sucker mouth | As they mature, the larval lampreys grow eyes and a sucker-like mouth. |
| spends twelve to twenty months feeding on host fish before swimming upstream to spawn | the juvenile sea lampreys move into deeper water and begin to seek host fish on which to feed over the course of 12-20 months. In the spring, adult sea lamprey migrate up tributaries to sexually mature and spawn. (note: 'before' follows the source's own sequence of stages.) |
| Niagara Falls once kept sea lampreys out of Lake Erie and the lakes beyond | The sea lamprey was previously prevented from spreading into Lake Erie and the rest of the Great Lakes basin by Niagara Falls. |
| The Welland Canal, opened in 1829, gave them a route around the falls | The Welland Canal, opened in 1829, bypassed Niagara Falls providing a route to Lake Erie |
| they turned up in Lake Erie by 1921, Lake Michigan by 1936, Lake Huron by 1937 and Lake Superior by 1946 | Lake Erie in 1921, Lake Michigan in 1936, Lake Huron in 1937, and Lake Superior in 1946 |
| Their arrival caused a collapse in commercial fisheries in many parts of the Great Lakes in the 1940s and 1950s | The introduction of sea lamprey caused a collapse in the commercial fisheries during the 1940s and 1950s in many parts of the Great Lakes |
| Lake Huron's lake trout catch fell from 3.4 million pounds in 1937 to virtual failure in 1947 | Lake trout ( Salvelinus namaycush ) catch in Lake Huron fell from 3.4 million pounds in 1937 to virtual failure in 1947. |
| A binational control program began in the 1950s | Since the bi-national Sea Lamprey Control program (managed by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission) was started in the 1950s |
| using barriers, traps | Barriers and traps have been effective controls of sea lamprey since the 1950s. |
| and a lampricide that kills larvae in their streams | the lampricide 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM), a chemical agent that kills larval lampreys in their stream habitats |
| By 2009, lamprey numbers were reported at less than 10% of their mid-20th-century peak | Overall, current sea lamprey abundance in the Great Lakes is reportedly less than 10% of the peak abundance of the mid-20th century (Siefkes 2009). (note: dated to the 2009 citation the page gives; the page also records a return to pre-control abundance in Lake Erie in 2005.) |
| a 2007 estimate put the yearly cost of control, monitoring and research at $14 million | an estimated $14 million/year spent on control, monitoring, and research (Jones 2007) |
| Fourteen in total: seven gill openings on each side of its head | seven gill openings on each side of its head (note: fourteen is seven a side, doubled.) |
| With no jaws to bite with | The sea lamprey is a jawless cartilaginous fish |
| it grips the host with its sucker mouth, whose teeth and tongue rasp like a file | a large round sucker-like mouth ringed with small, sharp teeth that act as a rasp along with a file-like tongue |
| They are not native to most of those lakes | Whether or not the sea lamprey is native to Lake America, this species is not native to the other Great Lakes and tributaries where it is now readily found. (note: 'Lake America' is how the cached text renders Lake Ontario. 'Most' is four of five: the page leaves the fifth, Lake Ontario, disputed.) |
| their arrival caused a collapse in commercial fishing in many parts of the Great Lakes in the 1940s and 1950s | The introduction of sea lamprey caused a collapse in the commercial fisheries during the 1940s and 1950s in many parts of the Great Lakes |
| In Lake Michigan the total catch fell from 5.5 million pounds in 1946 to just 402 pounds in 1953 | In Lake Michigan, total catch fell from 5.5 million pounds in 1946 to 402 pounds in 1953. |
| Control continues today | This effort continues today, with an estimated $14 million/year spent on control, monitoring, and research (note: NAS page revised 7/10/2026.) |
| the lampricide TFM has to be used again and again to keep their numbers down | However, continued use of TFM is required to keep populations under control |
| A Mouth That Rasps | small, sharp teeth that act as a rasp along with a file-like tongue (note: heading.) |
| Blind for Years Before It Grows Eyes | The blind, worm-like larval lamprey, known as ammocoetes (note: heading; the 3-17 years and the eyes are claimed in the section's sentences.) |
| The Invasion That Collapsed a Fishery | The introduction of sea lamprey caused a collapse in the commercial fisheries (note: heading.) |
| A jawless sucker mouth ringed with rasping teeth and a file-like tongue | The sea lamprey is a jawless cartilaginous fish ... a large round sucker-like mouth ringed with small, sharp teeth that act as a rasp along with a file-like tongue |

## Ford (2024). Petromyzon marinus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T16781A221272455.

https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2024-2.rlts.t16781a221272455.en

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Least Concern | Least Concern |

## Smith et al. (2013). Sequencing of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) genome provides insights into vertebrate evolution. Nature Genetics.

https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2568

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| split from ours roughly 500 million years ago | Lampreys are representatives of an ancient vertebrate lineage that diverged from our own ∼500 million years ago. |
| An Ancient Jawless Branch | Lampreys are representatives of an ancient vertebrate lineage that diverged from our own ∼500 million years ago. (note: heading; 'jawless' is claimed below from the NAS identification line.) |
| living members of an ancient vertebrate lineage that split from the branch leading to us roughly 500 million years ago | Lampreys are representatives of an ancient vertebrate lineage that diverged from our own ∼500 million years ago. |

## Chi et al. (2009). Suppression of neuronal excitability by the secretion of the lamprey (Lampetra japonica) provides a mechanism for its evolutionary stability. Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00424-008-0631-1

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Lampreys attach to a host fish with that sucker mouth and suck its blood for days | They attach themselves to the body surface of the host fish through their sucker-like mouths and suck blood of the host for days. (note: group scope kept: the sentence says 'Lampreys', as the abstract does.) |
| Paired glands in their mouths secrete compounds that stop the host's blood from clotting | paired buccal glands of lampreys secrete antihemostatic compounds to prevent blood of the host from coagulation |
| Lampreys secrete compounds from their buccal glands that keep the host's blood from coagulating | paired buccal glands of lampreys secrete antihemostatic compounds to prevent blood of the host from coagulation |
| they can go on sucking it for days | They attach themselves to the body surface of the host fish through their sucker-like mouths and suck blood of the host for days. |

## Wilkie et al. (2004). Lamprey parasitism of sharks and teleosts: high capacity urea excretion in an extant vertebrate relic. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpb.2004.06.001

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| to basking sharks | We observed 10 sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) parasitizing basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) |
| A shark's armor is no obstacle | the sea lamprey's ability to penetrate the dermal denticle armor of sharks (note: blockquote lead-in.) |
| In the Bay of Fundy, researchers observed ten sea lampreys feeding on basking sharks, the world's second-largest fish | We observed 10 sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) parasitizing basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus), the world's second largest fish, in the Bay of Fundy. |
| The sea lamprey can get through a shark's armor of dermal denticles, its tooth-like scales, then rapidly excrete the large volumes of urea it swallows with shark blood | the sea lamprey's ability to penetrate the dermal denticle armor of sharks, to rapidly excrete large volumes of urea (note: 'its tooth-like scales' glosses 'dermal denticle'; 'swallows with shark blood' is the abstract's 'co-ingested urea while feeding on basking sharks'.) |
| able to get through a shark's armor of dermal denticles | the sea lamprey's ability to penetrate the dermal denticle armor of sharks |