The hagfishes are a group of jawless fishes that are found in deep water in oceans around the world. In this talk, I will discuss the unusual lifestyle of the hagfishes, which involves burrowing into sediment to prey on invertebrates and to hide from predators, scavenging on carcasses, and thwarting fish predators with a unique flaccid body design and an ability to produce alarming amounts of fiber reinforced slime in a fraction of a second. I will also discuss current work on hagfish biodiversity as well as biomimetic efforts to produce materials that mimic the unique properties of hagfish slime.

 

Douglas Fudge is a professor of biology at Chapman University where he runs the Comparative Biomaterials Lab and works mostly on the biology of hagfishes. Dr. Fudge received a M.Sc. in Zoology from the University of Guelph and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of British Columbia.