Nature · 2
In the extreme mating strategy of anglerfish, which two physical features does a male permanently lose after fusing to a female?
Answer
His eyes and fins
Once a male anglerfish bites onto and fuses with a female, his body degenerates until his eyes and fins disappear, leaving him as a permanent, sperm-producing attachment.
💡 Did you know?
Anglerfish females absorb males into their bodies until they become fused gonads—a grotesque symbiosis where the male loses eyes, fins, and autonomy.
Other options people guess
- His teeth and gills
- His tail and scales
- His mouth and jaw
Topics
- anglerfish
- deep-sea
- symbiosis
- mating
Know your nature trivia?
Play a free Nature quiz and see how many you get right — no signup needed to start.
More Nature facts
Nature
In anglerfish, what happens to a male after he bites onto a female?
Anglerfish females are 10 times larger than males. Males bite females and fuse permanently, becoming living sperm-producing organs.
Nature
Biologists note that the oxpecker's feeding habits on large mammals can shift between which two types of ecological relationship?
Oxpecker birds eat parasites off large animals, but sometimes peck open wounds and drink blood—the relationship shifts between helpful and parasitic mid-interaction.
Nature
After coral polyps expel their symbiotic algae during a heatwave, why do they typically begin to starve?
Coral polyps expel their algae partners during heat stress, then starve without them—bleaching is essentially a symbiotic breakup caused by warming oceans.
Nature
What effect does a stick insect's foul-smelling chemical secretion have on predators after it plays dead?
Stick insects can play dead while oozing a foul-smelling chemical from their legs—predators often reject them as rotten food.
Nature
Beyond their chemical light reaction, what internal structure helps fireflies direct their glow forward rather than scattering it in all directions?
Fireflies don't make light through chemical reaction alone—they've evolved special reflective cells behind their abdomen to redirect emitted photons forward like organic flashlights.
Nature
Cuttlefish achieve precise color-matching camouflage despite lacking which specific visual ability?
Cuttlefish can change skin color and texture in 200 milliseconds despite having no color vision, guided entirely by pattern-recognition neurons in their skin.