Mondo Knows Facts
An anglerfish lures prey with living light
The glow comes from bacteria housed in a fin modified into a lure Deep sea fish cannot rely on sunlight, so many make their own or borrow it. The anglerfish dangles the bacterial lure in front of its mouth and snaps when something comes close. In some species the male fuses to the female and becomes a permanent sperm source. It sits in Mondo's animals collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
Deep-sea anglerfish hunt using glowing bioluminescent luresBacteria living inside the anglerfish modified fin ray light up prey.A dead whale feeds a community for decadesA whale fall supplies scavengers and bacteria for up to 50 yearsGoblin sharks shoot their jaws outward to catch deep-sea preyElastic ligaments catapult goblin shark jaws forward at high speed.Giant tube worms live at deep sea ventsThey grow up to two metres long and have no mouth or gutBioluminescence generates light without losing energy to heatEnzymatic oxidation of luciferin produces efficient cold light in living organismsSperm whales hunt more than two kilometres downThey hold their breath for around 90 minutes and click to find prey
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Tags: deep-sea, bioluminescence, predators
An anglerfish lures prey with living light: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The glow comes from bacteria housed in a fin modified into a lure. The figure is taken from NOAA Ocean, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.