The Animal You Cannot Get a Grip On
The impossible claim When a predator bites this animal, it blasts out slime that expands 10,000x in under a second — clogging the predator’s gills. The verified facts The hagfish (Myxine glutinosa and relatives) is a jawless, finless, eyeless eel-shaped fish that patrols the sea floor — and its defense is the fastest chemical weapon in the ocean. When attacked, ~100 slime glands fire simultaneously: the exudate deploys in under 0.4 seconds, swelling to ~10,000x its original volume — about 1 liter of slime per event, from just ~40 mg of mucus and protein. ...