![]() ![]() Their poor musculature and cumbersome morphology indicate that mature female footballfish are probably poor swimmers and largely sedentary, lie-in-wait predators. The football fish was first discovered in the early 1900s by deep sea fisherman in search of flounder. There are six branchiostegal rays and 19 vertebrae the parietal is lacking throughout life, there are no epurals, and the pelvic bone is triradiate. In both sexes, the fins are spineless: the single dorsal fin with 5 – 6 soft rays, the pectoral fins with 14 – 18, the anal fin with four, and the caudal fin with 19. The jaw lacks teeth, whereas those of the denticular bone have fused into a larger mass the upper denticular bone possesses 10 – 17 hooked denticles. The pterygiophore of the illicium does not protrude from the snout, and there is no hyoid barbel.Īt maturity, the streamlined males have an enlarged posterior nostril (with 10 – 17 lamellae) slightly ovoid eye with an enlarged pupil creating a narrow anterior aphakic space no ilicium or esca and the head and body is covered in dermal spinules, those along the snout midline being enlarged. Escal morphology varies between species, and it may or may not possess denticles or accessory appendages, the latter either branched or unbranched. Originating above or slightly in advance of the small eye is an illicium (the "fishing rod") and at its end a bioluminescent, bulbous esca (the "fishing lure", its light owing to symbiotic bacteria). Footballfish females differ from those of other ceratioid families by their shortened, blunt snout along with the chin, it is covered in sensory papillae. The subequal jaws are anteriorly lined with rows of numerous close-set, depressible, and retrorse teeth vomerine teeth are absent. In females, the mouth is large and oblique. Both are a reddish brown to black in life. Their flesh is gelatinous, but thickens in the larger females, which also possess a covering of "bucklers" - round, bony plates each with a median spine - that are absent in males. 22 species all in a single genus, Himantolophus (from the Greek imantos, "thong, strap", and lophos, "crest").Īs in other deep-sea anglerfish families, sexual dimorphism is extreme: the largest females may exceed lengths of 60 cm (two feet) and are globose in shape, whereas males do not exceed 4 cm (1.5 inches) as adults and are comparatively fusiform. The footballfish form a family, Himantolophidae, of globose, deep-sea anglerfishes found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean. Himantolophus appelii 2.Himantolophus mauli The species has only been seen a few times in California - including Orange County, where it washed up near Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach in May.1. The fish use a fleshy, bioluminescent lure from their heads to attract prey. It is usually found 2,000 to 3,000 feet beneath the sea, where sunlight doesn't penetrate, according to the California Academy of Sciences. "At first I thought it was a - like a jellyfish or something, and then I went and looked at it a little more carefully, and some other people were gathered around it too, and then I saw that it was this very unusual fish.It's the stuff of nightmares - mouth almost looked bloody! I'd say it was nearly a foot long," Beiler told local media, according to Storyful. 13 when it washed up at Torrey Pines State Beach. ![]() It's called the Pacific footballfish, and it's one of the larger anglerfish species. ![]() A rare, monstrous-looking fish recently washed ashore in San Diego, California. SAN DIEGO, California - This is really the stuff of nightmares. "It's the stuff of nightmares!" A rare, monstrous-looking fish normally found thousands of feet deep in the ocean washed ashore at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego. ![]()
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