Fish
Pelican eel
Eurypharynx pelecanoides
Harmless🌊 500–3000 m📏 up to 100 cmIUCN status: Not evaluated
Equipped with an oversized mouth able to stretch to swallow prey far larger than itself, it compensates for poor eyesight with a bioluminescent tail used as a lure.
🗺️ Geographic range
Temperate and tropical deep waters of every ocean.
📊 Population
No global population estimate available; a deep-sea species too little studied for an IUCN assessment.
Habitat
- Atlantic Ocean · High seas / open water · Bathypelagic zone · Permanent
Behaviour
- Diet
- Crustaceans and small fish, engulfed thanks to its extensible mouth.
- Hunting
- Swims slowly with its mouth open, catching whatever comes within reach.
- Reproduction
- Poorly documented.
Physiology
- Anatomy
- A jointed mouth that can make up most of the body, an extensible stomach.
- Adaptations
- A pink or red photophore organ at the tip of the tail, flashing to attract prey or confuse predators.
🔗 Web of marine life
Predators
⚡ Its extraordinary abilities
- Can swallow prey far larger than itself thanks to an extensible stomach
- Has a light organ at the tip of its tail used as a lure
If you cross paths with this animal…
Risk: None: inaccessible without a submersible.
Behaviour: Slow, mouth almost always half-open.
Advice: One of the strangest creatures of the abyss, rarely observed alive.
💡 Did you know?
- Its mouth can make up more than a quarter of its total body length.
- Long nicknamed the "pelican fish" for its resemblance to a pelican's pouch.