Moray Eels are Straight out of Alien

this episode was brought to you by curiosity stream moray eels are straight out of science fiction but love the happy kind hi I'm Danielle and you're watching Animal Logic morays are family of eels found all over the world there are over 200 different species of Moray and while they may vary in appearance they all share one main characteristic there are real creeps while they may look like they're related to snakes they're actually just a type of fish that is evolved to live in small and narrow crevices and yes they did of all unlike snakes moray eels are completely scaleless and have a dorsal fin that runs the length of their backs and joins with their caudal and anal fins they do lack pectoral and pelvic fins though and rely on a rather serpentines leathery movement to get around morays have very poor vision and rely primarily on chemo reception to catch prey they even have very visible nostrils this strategy is due to the fact that they're nocturnal and to see in the dark while underwater requires a certain visual acumen that morays lack many species of Moray have very large pointy teeth which they use to grab slippery fish the most famous of these is the fangtooth Moray Eel which has an elongated jaw to hold a frightening amount of broken glass looking teeth though some species like the snowflake moray known in the media as the Millennial moray specializes in crustaceans and other hard shelled animals and thus have blunt teeth which they use to crack open shells while the translucent teeth of a leopard Moray might seem like the height of badassery it's really only the surface morays have two sets of Jaws they're regular or oral jaws are the ones with the big scary teeth but they also have a second set called their fur injeel' jaws this one sits in the throat of the Moray and when the Moray catches its prey in its oral jaw the Ferengi ayash shoots forward grabs the prey and pulls it down its throat morays are the only animal known to do this bemmon xenomorphs I guess the California moray even has teeth on the roof of its mouth to prevent their prey from moving sideways making it easier for the Ferengi ayotte to do its work morays are primarily ambush hunters lunging at prey as they pass by but these lunges generate waves which can displace their prey moving them out of their range cleverly morays have developed openings on either side of their large mouth which allows for water to move through their mouths and prevent wave generation but maurya's don't only ambush sometimes they chase the giant Moray Eel has been observed teaming up with grouper and other fish on Hunt's groupers are open water hunters and their prey hides from them in coral giant moray eels on the other hand live in coral and their prey heads to open water to escape them to initiate the team-up grouper fish will find a giant Moray and shake its head the Moray will leave its den and join the grouper on the hunt if they're pretty is scared by the grouper the moray gets it and if it's scared by the moray the grouper gets it morays have few predators and the larger species are often the apex predators in their ecosystems one of the morays typical behaviors that doesn't help their creepy reputation is their constant opening and closing of their mouths they do this as a way to force water through their gills which are located next to their mouths most species of moray are patterned and those patterns continue on the insides of their mouths morays are covered in mucus and in some species that mucus is toxic their skin is lined with cells called goblet cells these produce mucus they use this mucus to protect themselves from abrasions caused by the sharp edges of the rocks and coral they tend to live in different species are slimy er than others and some are slimy or on different parts of their bodies depending on their lifestyle ribbon eels make burrows in the sand and they use their mucus as a form of glue to hold the sand in their burrows together ribbon eels are one of the coolest types of Moray though their place in the more a family is up for debate ribbon eels have extended protruding nostrils which they can use to attract prey they are believed to be Pro trantric hermaphrodites which means that they are born male and later in life become female also with age they developed their striking colors juveniles are black but as they age they become a deep blue and yellow if they're male and entirely yellow if they're female female morays lay the eggs and the male's fertilize them when they hatch the larvae are free swimming but most interestingly they are translucent the largest moray eel is the giant Moray which can reach up to 2.5 meters in length and weigh up to 30 kilograms the smallest Moray is Snyder's Moray which measures just under 12 centimeters in length morays live primarily in saltwater though there are some species that can be found in brackish and freshwater and if you were wondering Maurice have been documented tying themselves into knots to create leverage to pull prey out of crevices moray eels are some of the strangest and most fascinating creatures in the ocean but the deeper you go the more interesting it gets if you want to follow the journey of a team of scientists and filmmakers into the depths of the ocean and see all the amazing life-forms that have survived untouched for thousands of years then you should watch deep ocean narrated by Sir David Attenborough just streaming on curiosity stream right now in deep ocean you'll follow the team as it descends into the bowels of the earth in a state-of-the-art submarine capturing truly unique and amazing images you'll learn about Nautilus's bioluminescent sea jellies dragon fish barreleye fish deep-sea anglerfish and many many more they've captured some of the most astounding deep-sea footage I've ever seen it's really cool curiosity stream is a subscription streaming service with an amazing library of over 2000 documentaries nonfiction titles an exclusive originals if you like animal logic then you'll love all of the nature documentaries on this service to check out deep ocean and support and melodic go to curiosity stream dot-com slush animal logic and claim your 30-day free trial with the promo code animal logic so what animal should I talk about next please let me know in the comments and be sure to subscribe for new episodes of animal logic every week thanks for watching

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 798,132

Rating: 4.8767142 out of 5

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, show, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, animalsfacts, about, information, info, school, research, learn, learning, fun, easy, smart, moray, eel, alien, xenomorph, teeth, translucent, transparent, broken glass, japanese, dragon, fangtooh, ribbon, blue, yellow, giant, snyder, ocean, deep, david attenborough, aliens, prometheus, jaw, double, tooth, bite, lunge

Id: xM1Gh99VOx8

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 18 2019