hagfish
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- fish Eptatretidae Myxinidae Myxine glutinosa
hagfish, also called slime eel, any of about 70 species of marine vertebrates placed with the lampreys in the superclass Agnatha. Although most classifications place all hagfishes in the family Myxinidae, they are sometimes divided into two families: Myxinidae, represented in every ocean, and Eptatretidae, represented everywhere but the North Atlantic. Eel-like in shape, hagfishes are scaleless, soft-skinned creatures with paired thick barbels on the end of the snout. Depending on the species, they grow to about 40 to 100 cm (16 to 40 inches) long. Primitive vertebrates, hagfishes have a tail fin (but no paired fins) and no jaws ...(100 of 269 words)