Dolphins are some of the smartest mammals out there, but that doesn’t mean they’re prone to the demons that are cookie-cutter sharks. But Cookie cutter sharks? Shouldn’t their name mean they’re adorable? Sorry, nope! Our story doesn’t even end there. You have yet to see the horrors of the vampire fish that can literally eat you from the inside out. If that doesn’t interest you, how about two sets of jaws? Does that sound like something that would pop up in your nightmares? Then keep reading!
1. Lampreys
Among the most primitive of all vertebrate species, the sea lamprey is a parasitic fish native to the northern and western Atlantic Ocean. Due to their similar body shapes, lampreys are sometimes inaccurately called “lamprey eels.”
Unlike “bony” fishes like trout, cod, and herring, lampreys lack scales, fins, and gill covers. Like sharks, their skeletons are made of cartilage. They breathe through a distinctive row of seven pairs of tiny gill openings located behind their mouths and eyes.
But the anatomical trait that makes the sea lamprey an efficient killer of lake trout and other bony fishes is its disc-shaped, suction-cup mouth, ringed with sharp, horny teeth, with which it latches on to an unfortunate fish. The lamprey then uses its rough tongue to rasp away the fish’s flesh so it can feed on its host’s blood and body fluids. One lamprey kills about 40 pounds of fish every year.
2. The Sarcastic Fringehead Is a Real Living Thing, And It’s Spectacularly Horrifying
Sometimes we don’t know what’s weirder: nature’s strange creations or the ridiculous names we humans give them. That is certainly the case with the Sarcastic Fringehead.
Sarcastic fringeheads live in the pacific waters, off the coast of North America – from San Francisco, USA to Baja California in Mexico. They are ambush predators, so they like to stake out a hide-y hole that offers them both protection and a great vantage point from where to pounce on prey.
Once they’ve reverse parked into their chosen nook, they’ll aggressively charge at anything that comes too near – including divers. And rumour has it, they don’t like to let go.
When rival males get too close to each other they unfurl shockingly large and colourful mouths and make gaping threats at one another, like yupping muppets.
3. The oceans most venomous fish – Reef Stonefish
The stonefish belongs to the Synanceiidae family, and there are five different species known to date. They live in the Indo-Pacific region, more specifically in Northern Australia, Indonesia, Solomon Islands, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and occasionally on the warm waters of the West Coast of the United States.
These strangely-looking marine creatures with big bulbous eyes measure around 15 inches (38 centimeters) and weigh about 3.5 pounds (1.5 kilograms).
Despite not being a good swimmer, this lethal stinging animal is an unlikely predator with a passive-aggressive strategy.
The stonefish waits patiently for its prey, hiding in the rocky seafloor or coral. Once the fish strays within optimum striking distance, the stonefish launches an accurate, lightning-fast assault that can last as little as 0.015 seconds.
4. Bobbit Worm – The sea’s creepiest crawly
The bobbit worm is a worm, weaponised. Found in warmer oceans around the world, it buries itself into sediment, leaving only its mouth exposed with its huge, scissor-like jaws open wide. Five antennae protruding from its head act like tripwires. If a fish should accidentally brush past one of them, it has mere milliseconds to flee. The bobbit worm’s razor-sharp mouthparts strike with such velocity that prey is sometimes sliced clean in two.
Like snakes and other unjustly powerful animals, bobbits hunt prey far larger than themselves. Fish never survive the ambush, pulled underground by the ferocious jaws of a worm without a face or a complex brain. The bobbit swallows prey like quicksand. Its jaws yank meals underground in brutally punctuated plunges, allowing the sand enough time to settle around the darting eye of a fish that doesn’t quite know what just happened.
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