jawless fish
Agnathan sea creature
Jawless fish are the most primitive vertebrates, lacking the hinged jaws found in other fish.
The only surviving types are lampreys and hagfish—elongated, eel-like creatures with round, sucking mouths.
Lampreys attach to other fish as parasites; hagfish feed on dead or dying sea creatures.
Jawless fish diverged from other vertebrates over 500 million years ago.
- lampreyJawless parasitic fish
- sea lampreyJawless parasitic fish
- jawlessWithout a mandible
- living fossilOrganism unchanged since prehistory
- prehistoric creatureAnimal from ancient eras
notochord · hagfish · agnathans · vertebrates · chordates · gill slits · fossil records · marine environments · Great Lakes · scavengers · filter feeder · parasitism · boneless · serpentine · Cambrian · slime · teeth · eel