Top 15 Weirdest Animals in the World

Page 9 of 16

#8 Spook Fish (Macropinna microstoma)

Spook Fish - Illustration: Brauer, A. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Facts

Class: Fish
Order: Argentiniformes (Argentiniformes)
Family: Spook Fish (Opisthoproctidae)
Distribution: Pacific
Habitat: Deep sea (2,000-2,600 feet; 600-800 meters)

What could he possibly be thinking? The fish with the glassy forehead

As humans, we often wish to know what others are thinking. With the Ghost Fish, you can literally see it: Its entire forehead and the top of its head are completely transparent! Nature has given it a sort of glass cockpit cover filled with a clear liquid.

ADVERTISEMENT - ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

When you look at a picture of this fish, you immediately notice two dark spots at the front of its face. Surprise: Those aren’t its eyes! They are actually its olfactory organs (nasal pits), which appear like nostrils. Its real eyes are safely tucked away inside the transparent skull. They are two large, bright green spheres that face upwards.

Green Spotlights in the Pitch-Black Deep Sea

But why does nature create a fish with a glassy head? This creature resides in the frigid deep sea, where almost no sunlight penetrates. To see anything in this darkness, its eyes are shaped like tubes (telescope eyes). They act as extremely powerful light collectors. The bright green color of the eyes also serves as a built-in color filter. This helps the ghost fish distinguish the faint glow of jellyfish or other deep-sea organisms from the minimal ambient light.

For a long time, researchers believed that the fish could only look straight up. It wasn't until 2004 that American marine biologists managed to film the creature in its natural habitat using underwater robots. They discovered that the ghost fish can rotate its eyes within its fluid-filled head! When searching for food, it looks upward. Once it spots prey, it turns its eyes forward and swims directly towards it to catch it with its small mouth.

A Perfect Thief in the Dark

The unusual eyes of the ghost fish assist it in a rather bold hunting technique. It loves to steal food! Often, it attaches itself to the long, toxic tentacles of box jellyfish. Since its eyes are perfectly shielded from the jellyfish's stinging cells by a transparent protective cover, it can leisurely pick off the small crabs that get caught in the tentacles.

Continue to spot 9: The butterfly with glass wings!

ADVERTISEMENT - ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Staying on the theme of "transparency," we leave the deep sea and soar into the tropical rainforests of South America. Here, there is an insect that doesn’t flaunt colorful wings but instead has real windows! You can see through its wings as if they were freshly cleaned glass. Click ahead now to meet the stunning glasswing butterfly!

Sources:

Preservation Obscures Pelagic Deep-Sea Fish Diversity: Doubling the Number of Sole-Bearing Opisthoproctids and Resurrection of the Genus Monacoa (Opisthoproctidae, Argentiniformes) (https://journals.plos.org)