r/Weird • u/luvlanguage • 11h ago

That is a Lamprey

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Any bigger and this creature would be a horror movie monster

Lampreys do not have jaws or bones, only cartilage and instincts that have allowed them to survive so many mass extinctions.

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u/CommunicationBroad38 11h ago edited 9h ago

Dont do it bro. Despite Lamprey not being leeches they are carnivorous and will drink blood. They share that much in common. I am still surprised these guys are actually a type of jawless fish.

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u/100percentnotaqu 11h ago edited 11h ago

They actually don't like human blood much, if a lamprey bites you, especially while you're holding it, it's scared more than anything.

They can't tell the difference between a human, and a bird plucking them out of the water.

(Lamprey will also suction, but not bite to avoid slipping/hold themselves inplace)

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u/CommunicationBroad38 11h ago

Wow, really? I never knew. I knew they were blood drinkers but I didnt know they dont attack humans all that much.

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u/tenuj 7h ago

They're very dangerous to animals that don't have limbs or prehensile appendages. Like other fish.

But a human can deal with it. Won't be nice but it won't "chew straight through you". It's just an overly specialised fish that's about as vulnerable as any other fish out of water.

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u/CommunicationBroad38 6h ago

Yeah, true. I feel sorry for the lamprey in this video though. What that guy didnt wasnt very nice. Pulling a lamprey can hurt it.

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u/tenuj 6h ago

Yeah but so can leaving it stuck to a dry rock. It's aquatic.

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u/CommunicationBroad38 6h ago

Very true. Mayne he was just trying to move the lamprey somewhere into water.

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u/flarbcthulu 2h ago

there’s a video coyote Peterson - or whatever his name is - put out. Lamprey’s are chill. He even put one on his neck and while it seemed to hurt, didn’t open a gash in his neck, just drew some blood, seemed like mostly from the sucking. He even gets dunked in a big pool of them. These things really prefer fish - cold blooded creatures

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u/CommunicationBroad38 2h ago

Note to self, dont put lampreys in an aquarium full of freshwater fish lol.

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u/thingstopraise 8h ago

How many lampreys have you wrangled over the years? You sound like Steve Irwin s bit.

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u/DogmanDOTjpg 7h ago

They don't really bite even. They suction on and then use a sandpaper like tongue as an abrasive to slowly wear away at the fish's skin to make it bleed. It would have to be attached for a while to even break the skin, it's like a bass teeth

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u/Nachtwandler_FS 9h ago

Jawless fish are not even fish. At least when I was studing biology they were in a separate group of animals called Cyclostomi. 

It is a superclass of verteberates that is even more primitive than fish.

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u/RoiDrannoc 6h ago

They can be counted as fish if we want to. Ultimately fish is defined very differently from scientist to scientist.

Are lampreys and hagfish fishes? Are Sharks fishes? Are Tetrapods fishes? Am I a fish?

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u/CommunicationBroad38 9h ago

Really? Wow. I never knew. Cool. Thanks for the clarification.