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Ocean adventurer recently stumbled upon an exceedingly strange sight in the Pacific ’s deep sea — a rarefied , shapeshifting " guzzler eel " with its most late meal still clearly visible in its breadbasket .
The pelican eel ( Eurypharynx pelecanoides ) , also know as a guzzler eel , was descry June 20 by investigator on board the Research Vessel ( RV ) Falkor while controlling the remotely lock fomite ( ROV ) SuBastian . The ROV was on thelast diveof the Octopus Odyssey hostile expedition — a mission to investigate anunusually enceinte grouping of octopuses at the Dorado Outcropoff the west coast of Costa Rica — when it hail across the serpent - alike fish with a noticeable lump in its midriff around 6,900 feet ( 2,100 meters ) below the aerofoil .
This gulper eel, which was spotted at a depth of almost 7,000 feet by researchers controlling an ROV, has an elongated lump protruding from its underside. Researchers think this bulge was its most recent meal.
A short video of the confrontation , which was by spokesperson from Schmidt Ocean Institute who organise the mission , showed the eel contorting its misshapen body as it swim up to the camera before disappear into the duskiness of the deep .
The tough eel , which has only been spotted a handful of times in the natural state , gets its name for its ability to perturb its jaw and expand its pharynx like a pelican . It also has one of themost stretchy oral cavity in the animate being kingdom . Experts consider that this uncanny power belike enable it to exhaust much bigger meal than its slender body would indicate it capable of but until now , nobody has reported understand one with a belly full of food .
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A short clip of the eel swimming with its full stomach.
" In all our conflate years of exploring the deep sea , this was the first guzzler eel for all of us , " said mission scientistDiva Amon , a Caribbean marine biologist who was inside the ROV control elbow room when the guzzler eel was found . " And to see it with a remarkably full tummy was the icing on the cake . " It is the sort of matter that you’re able to ordinarily only see in textbooks , she distinguish Live Science in an email .
expert are n’t trusted what was inside the venter of the guzzler eel , but SOI representatives guessed that it could have been a " squid or swarm of shrimp , " and based on the size and chassis of the goon , a squid seems like the most potential of the two . But gulper eel are also suspected to eat large lumps of seaweed , according to theWoods Hole Oceanographic Institute ( WHOI)in Massachusetts .
guzzler eels are not particularly skilled huntsman or swimmers . rather , they use bioluminescence to give rise a violent light at the death of their tails that lure their prey in close enough to be swallowed whole , according to WHOI .
The gulper eel’s ribbon-like tail.(Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute)
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The eel gets up close to the camera.(Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute)
There is also evidence to suggest that gulper eel can use their remarkable jaw mechanics to aid inflate their flexible bodies with water system to restrain likely predators into think they are larger than they actually are .
In 2018 , researchers on instrument panel the Ocean Exploration Trust ’s Exploration Vessel ( EV ) Nautilus came across a ballooned guzzler eel while exploring the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument near Hawaii with another ROV . In aviral video of the face-off , the team take in the eel transform from a giant ball with a tail into a regular - forge eel after extending and then closing its remarkably flexible jaw .
A look at the eel’s lengthy body.(Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute)
The eel’s full stomach is clearly visible from the side.(Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute)
