jawless fish

Definitions of jawless fish

1. noun

   eel-shaped vertebrate without jaws or paired appendages including the cyclostomes and some extinct forms
   synonyms: agnathan, jawless vertebrate

   types:

   ostracoderm

   extinct fish-like jawless vertebrate having a heavily armored body; of the Paleozoic

   heterostracan

   extinct jawless fish with the anterior part of the body covered with bony plates; of the Silurian and Devonian

   cephalaspid, osteostracan

   extinct jawless fish of the Devonian with armored head

   anaspid

   extinct small freshwater jawless fish usually having a heterocercal tail and an armored head; of the Silurian and Devonian

   conodont

   small (2 inches long) extinct eellike fish with a finned tail and a notochord and having cone-shaped teeth containing cellular bone; late Cambrian to late Triassic; possible predecessor of the cyclostomes

   cyclostome

   primitive aquatic vertebrate

   lamper eel, lamprey, lamprey eel

   primitive eellike freshwater or anadromous cyclostome having round sucking mouth with a rasping tongue

   hag, hagfish, slime eels

   eellike cyclostome having a tongue with horny teeth in a round mouth surrounded by eight tentacles; feeds on dead or trapped fishes by boring into their bodies

   Petromyzon marinus, sea lamprey

   large anadromous lamprey sometimes used as food; destructive of native fish fauna in the Great Lakes

   Myxine glutinosa

   typical hagfish

   eptatretus

   a fossil hagfish of the genus Eptatretus

   Myxinikela siroka

   fossil hagfish of the Pennsylvanian period (c. 300 million years ago) that resembled modern hagfishes

   type of:

   aquatic vertebrate

   animal living wholly or chiefly in or on water