Latest update August 4th, 2026 12:30 AM
Swordfish – Xiphias gladius
Swordfish are the natural-born gladiators of the sea
Howstuffworks – Some animals just look weird — and by weird, I just mean differently proportioned than we’re used to. Take narwhals, axolotls, aye ayes, goblin sharks, long-wattled umbrella birds — all of them have something about them that makes us do a double take. But the thing is, evolution’s got a reason for nearly everything it does, so if it gave a swordfish a meter-long (3.2 feet-long) saber at the end of its face, you’d better believe there was a reason for it. The swordfish (Xiphias gladius) is not eaten by any animal in the ocean other than large-toothed whales and some open-ocean shark species.
The swordfish (Xiphias gladius) is not eaten by any animal in the ocean other than large-toothed whales and some open-ocean shark species.
Swordfish Are Special
The swordfish (Xiphias gladius) is a species of billfish — a group of predatory pelagic fish (meaning they live in the upper layers of the open ocean) that includes sailfish, marlin and spearfish. Swordfish can grow up to 14 feet (4 meters) in length and weigh up to 1,200 pounds (635 kilograms) and they’re extremely athletic, partly because their gills have a ton of surface area and can absorb more oxygen at once than many fish. There is only one species of swordfish, though different populations occupy different corners of the world’s oceans. Aside from that, they’re unique, even among their billfish cousins, in a couple ways. For starters, they inhabit the widest temperature range of any billfish:
“Swordfish can be found from the surface, where they often bask and expose their fins in the air, to depths greater than 3,280 feet [1,000 meters],” says swordfish researcher Chugey Sepulveda, director and senior scientist at the Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research (PIER) in Oceanside, California, in an email interview. “During the daylight hours, swordfish can remain up to 12 consistent hours in the dark at temperatures as low as 41 degrees F (5 degrees C). At night they are usually found in the warm surface waters. Swordfish repeat this cycle day in and day out, a strategy that allows them to pretty much forage around the clock.”
But more notably, swordfish differ from other billfish in their physiology: none of their other cousins has a rostrum — basically a protruding upper jawbone — that’s as long. A swordfish’s bill looks delicate, and yet is comparable in strength to a horse’s bones, and not easily broken. But why do they need this crazy face contraption? For hunting, of course!
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