The only vertebrate that eats with its mouth shut

The Pacific hagfish is the only vertebrate that can obey the cardinal rule of the dinner table: don’t eat with your mouth open. Uniquely among the 50,000 vertebrate species alive today, it can absorb nutrients through its skin. The primitive hagfish, thought to be as close as we can get in a living animal to the first vertebrate, has an internal salinity that matches its surroundings. Image: Ryan Somma

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