Sex, Drugs and Slime

Pygmy seashorse photo by Vickie Coker

Terry Gross had an interesting talk today with Ellen Prager, author of “Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Oceans’ Oddest Creatures and Why They Matter.”

Kissing Anglerfish: The females are small, soft and they swim around trying to catch food. The males are dwarfs and their entire goal in life is to find a female. They swim around looking for the females. When they find them, I call it the ‘never-ending kiss.’ They bite into them and their lips get fused to the female and they end up living as a parasite on the female providing sperm. Scientists are really interesting in the immune system of anglerfish because the female’s body doesn’t reject the male.