#macropinna microstoma

[a-book-of-creatures]

Amazing how we keep discovering new things. Back in my day barreleyes like Opisthoproctus soleatus looked like this

because they were only ever known from dead specimens dredged up from the deep.

Except when a barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) was actually filmed alive in 2008, turns out it actually has a transparent dome over its head that collapses at the surface.

The dome helps it gather even more light into those big upward-facing eyes! It’s like it’s wearing a deep sea helmet!!

And then you look at the old illustrations and realize the deflated membrane was there all along, you just didn’t realize it!

I know the blobfish is the gold standard for “fish that looks completely different at the surface” but this is one of the ones that I knew of as a kid and blew my mind when I saw the live footage.

Next time we’ll talk about gulper eels

[vigatadepera]

Mermay, Macropinna Microstoma.

[mirkokosmos]

Macropinna (Pacific Barreleye Fish)

[swimmingferret]

I was born with glass bones and paper skin

[betweenpacifictides]

Macropinna microstoma

[mirtadraws]

Please enjoy this fish fact.

[lovingexotics]

Barreleye Fish Macropinna microstoma Source: Here

[aesthesiamag]

Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes

The deepest oceans have a way of coming up with some of Earth’s amazing strange creatures that we never thought existed. But this unusual deep sea fish might have them all beat.

This sea creature is known as a Macropinna microstoma fish and it will literally amaze you with its transparent head and tubular eyes.

At first look you will mistakenly think those little black dots at the end of his face are his eyes. Those are his nostrils, or at least organs that help him smell. His real eyes are the brownish tubes inside his head, ending in those bright green half spheres.

The deep sea fish developed their transparent heads and tissue to help them navigate the murky depths of their ocean home, more than 2,000 feet below the surface.

This fascinating 6-inch fish was first discovered and recorded in 1939 by scientists who found at that time an incomplete fish, but later in 2004, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute captured the fish moving in the deep sea. 

SOURCE