Word: leptocephali
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...spring. Before spawning, matured eels fast for months, their ultimate death re sulting from starvation. The small eels that return by the myriad are at least a year old, having developed out of a larval stage which Science long took to be a distinct species of surface-dwelling fish, leptocephali, notable for their complete lack of reproductive organs. The presence of eels in waters blocked from the sea by high falls, and in land-locked ponds and lakes, is readily accounted for by the eel's ability to live a long time out of water, to travel considerable distances...
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