1. The hagfish also represents an important evolutionary step in the development of vision.

2. Primitive fishes, such as hagfish and lampreys, use suctionlike mouths to attach to the outer surface of other fish and suck out nutrients.

3. The Pacific Ocean Hagfish has a disgusting way of defending itself.

4. They're kind of like eels or hagfish or lampreys, but different.

5. As such, the hagfish represents a kind of missing link in the evolution of the eye.

6. The hagfish, unfortunately, sometimes falls prey to its own defense mechanism, but normally it twists itself into knots to escape the gelatinous goop.