QUICK FACTS
Name: Pelican eel (Eurypharynx pelecanoides)
Where it lives: In tropical and temperate regions of the deep ocean, at depths from 1,600 feet to nearly 10,000 feet (500 to 3,000 meters)
What it eats: Crustaceans, fish, squid and other marine invertebrates
As it drifts through the inky blackness of the "midnight zone" in the deep sea, the pelican eel undulates its narrow, whiplike tail and long, snakelike body. It's hard to imagine its slender form consuming large prey — that is, until the eel unfolds its jaw like an umbrella and yawns its cavernous sac of a mouth.
