What is going on with the zombie fish? Explaining the true causes
The zombie fish, also known as the lamprey, eight-eyed eel, seven-star fish and so on, is an ancient animal of the order Petromyzontiformes in the class Cyclostomata. It does not belong to the same category as the fish of the class Pisces, and is not a fish. It is found in Arctic Ocean waters, including the Bering Sea, the coastal waters of Korea, the North Pacific off the coast of Japan, and the freshwater waters of Canada, Mongolia and Northeast China. Let us take a look below at what is going on with the zombie fish!
What is going on with the zombie fish?
The zombie fish is a prehistoric creature that appeared 200 million years earlier than the dinosaurs. Its body is snake-like, and its tunnel-shaped mouth is filled with countless hooked, sharp teeth. Records of the lamprey exist as early as in Britain; in the 11th century, King Henry I of England was suspected to have died from eating too many lampreys. With the pollution of rivers and the building of dams during the Industrial Revolution, the lamprey disappeared from British rivers. Environmental groups say the lamprey's appearance is because river pollution in Britain in recent years has fallen to its lowest level in 100 years. To conserve the lamprey, environmental groups have taken a number of measures, including removing artificial obstacles that block the lamprey's migration. On September 22, in Britain, a man discovered a zombie fish while bathing in a river.
What does the zombie fish look like?
The zombie fish looks very much like an ordinary eel. Its body is slender and eel-shaped, with bare skin and no scales. On its back there is a long dorsal fin that extends backward all the way to the tail end and wraps around the tail to form a caudal fin. Apart from this, there are no other fins on its body. It has 2 dorsal fins, a well-developed oral funnel, and no barbels. The lamprey has only one nostril, located on top of the head between the two eyes. The eyes are well developed, with a pineal eye that has a light-sensing function. Behind the eyes, on each side of the body, there are 7 gill pores, which is why it is called the "lamprey". The inner ear has two semicircular canals. The end of the nasohypophyseal sac is a blind sac. The sexes are separate, and development goes through a relatively long larval stage before metamorphosis into the adult. Adults live a semi-parasitic life, which is harmful to fisheries.
What kinds of zombie fish are there?
1. American brook lamprey: The American brook lamprey is a non-parasitic lamprey that mainly lives in streams in the northeastern United States. It uses its oral disc to move stones in the riverbed and build a nest for its eggs. Adult American brook lampreys live for about one month and do not feed.
2. Sea lamprey: The sea lamprey comes from the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to building nests with its oral disc, it also attaches to larger fish, then uses its tongue to bore a hole in the other fish and suck its blood. It will live parasitically on this fish for about two years, after which it migrates to streams to complete spawning.
3. Japanese lamprey: The Japanese lamprey has no outer lateral teeth, and the bases of the two dorsal fins are connected. The total body length of an adult can reach 400-500 mm. Each end of the upper lip plate has one tooth, and there are three pairs of inner teeth, all with two cusps. The lower lip plate has six tooth plates and a toothed tongue. It is distributed in the Heilongjiang River, the Tumen River, Korea, Japan and other places.
4. Northeastern lamprey: The northeastern lamprey has outer lateral teeth, and there is a clear gap between the two dorsal fins. It is distributed in the Yalu River, the Taizi River, the Hun River and the Biliu River of the Liaodong Peninsula in the eastern mountainous tributaries of the Liao River, the Hunjiang River in Tonghua, Jilin, the Jiamusi section of the Songhua River, northern Korea, the Russian Far East and other places.
5. Arctic lamprey: The Arctic lamprey is about 30 cm long and lives in freshwater. Its mouth is cylindrical, with no upper or lower jaws. Its oral cavity looks much like a human eye, yet is filled with sharp teeth. It lives by sucking the blood of other fish, and its appearance has inspired the designs of many monsters in films.