This image is repulsive and intriguing at the same time. I can say this: Isabella does wonders for the anglerfish.
Love in the Animal Kingdom: An Informative Valentine’s Day Spam
In the deep sea, finding a mate can be problematic — which is why certain species of anglerfish, like those of the Ceratioid group, have evolved an unusual mating method.
When scientists first started capturing ceratioid anglerfish, they noticed that all of the specimens were females. They also appeared to have misshapen, cylindrical “parasites” protruding haphazardly from their bodies at strange angles. These “parasites” turned out to be the remnants of male anglerfishes.
At birth, male ceratoids are already equipped with extremely well developed olfactory organs that detect scents in the water. Lacking even a proper digestive system, these glorified sperm live solely to find and mate with a female, and failure to do so would result in their deaths.
When the male finds a female, he bites into her skin, and releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood-vessel level. The male then slowly atrophies, first losing his digestive organs, then his brain, heart, and eyes, and ends as nothing more than a pair of gonads that release sperm when the female is ready to reproduce. A female may have several atrophied males attached to her body.
