Why is this animal unusual?
In relation to its body, it has the largest teeth of any fish in the sea. The two longest fangs slide into pockets on either side of its brain when the mouth closes.
Why does it look like that?
A big bony head, tiny eyes and a short, chunky body. It’s also extraordinarily dark: its skin is among the blackest in nature and soaks up nearly all the light that hits it.
Strangest biological feature
Those fangs – a cage that nothing gets out of.
Why is it strange?
Young fangtooths look so different from the adults – pale, spiky and big-eyed – that scientists originally described them as a separate species.
Interesting behavioral facts
With poor eyesight, it finds food mostly by bumping into it, sensing movement through a line of pressure sensors along its body.
Records held
Largest teeth for its body size of any ocean fish.
