Slender Snipe-eel Nemichthys scolopaceus. Original artwork from Astonishing animals.

2003.
Watercolour and gouache on Arches paper, 1015 x 110mm, scale 3:1, mounted but not framed, signed and dated by artist.

Page 182 (Nemichthys scolopaceus)
Nearly two kilometres below the surface of the sea lurks the slender snipe-eel. It has more vertebrae in its backbone-around 750-than any other animal, and can stretch out to a metre and a half long, much of which is its thin tail. Oddly for a creature with such a long body, its anus has evolved by migrating forward and is now situtated on its throat. So slender is the fish that even the largest snipe-eel weighs less than a hen's egg. Its larvae is leaf-shaped and, strangely, shrinks slightly before transforming into the adult form. It can live for up to ten years.
It seems likely that its bizarre jaws snare the antennae of shrimps and other crustacea, for they are covered in velcro-like, backwards-pointing teeth. Many specimens held in the world's museums were spat up by larger fish caught in trawls. Fossils over 7 million years old indicate that the snipe-eel family are fish of some antiquity.