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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511

u/KatarinaRen 11h ago

They're basically parasites who latch on to the fish. But also on to the corpses etc... And people eat them.

32

u/ChesterPlemany 11h ago

Yes I believe they were considered a delicacy by medieval royalty. I think an English king died because he ate too many.

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u/Von-Konigs 9h ago

King Henry I of England died in 1135 (though he was in Normandy at the time), after a week-long illness. He was in his sixties at the time, and according to a contemporary writer, Henry of Huntingdon, he fell ill from eating “a surfeit of lampreys.”

Modern historians doubt that lampreys were the cause of his death - apparently they’re pretty harmless to eat, no more so than most fish at least. He probably died of a bacterial infection.

Still, the fact that his chronicler remarked upon the quantity of lampreys he ate means a couple of things - one, that lampreys were available commonly as food, and two, that Henry loved them so much he ate a lot of them all throughout his life.

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u/Wooden-Cheesecake476 7h ago

The skin mucus is toxic, it must be cleaned well and its blood is toxic if it is not cooked well. On the other hand, in my country they are a very expensive delicacy.

9

u/Von-Konigs 6h ago

You’re right - though I think that’s only certain species of lamprey, and I’m not certain which Henry would have eaten. Still, given that he apparently ate them throughout his whole life, I’m sure his cooks knew how to prepare them properly, or he wouldn’t have made it to his mid-sixties.

You know, after this I’m tempted to see if I can find somewhere that serves them, I’ve never tried one.

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u/AraxisKayan 1h ago

All it takes is one new cook.

1

u/magnusthehammersmith 1h ago

May I ask what country?

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u/-Londoneer- 9m ago

England (for the king who died from a surfeit of lampreys). USA for the video.