FIRST PHOTOS: Fish With Transparent Head, "Barrel" Eyes

[stevedeshazer]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/photogalleries/fish-transparent-head-barreleye-picture/



February 23, 2009--With a head like a fighter-plane cockpit, a Pacific barreleye fish shows off its highly sensitive, barrel-like eyes—topped by green, orblike structures—in a picture released today but taken in 2004.

The fish, discovered alive in the deep water off California's central coast by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), is the first specimen of its kind to be found with its soft transparent dome intact.

The 6-inch (15-centimeter) barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) had been known since 1939—but only from mangled specimens dragged to the surface by nets.

[notadmblnd]

1. That's really pretty, it looks like he has a terrerium in his head.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. That thing is awesome looking

[arcadian]

3. WTF?

:wtf:

[live love laugh]

16. My sentiments exactly. W.T.F. nt

[Last Stand]

4. When are they gonna get the plesiasour--the Monster from Monterey?

I'd hate to be out for a swim when I saw one of those. Some wild stories on the web (and tv).

[petronius]

5. That is really cool and weird looking

Sure wish I had a transparent head... :(

[rug]

31. The world would be better off if we all had transparent heads.

[OwnedByFerrets]

6. GIve us a few more years...we will kill it off too.

Thanks for sharing. Its an amazing animal.

[tridim]

7. That doesn't look real

Really!

Bravo Mother Nature.

[stevedeshazer]

A Pixar movie must surely follow.

That is one weird looking fish.

[MadHound]

8. What's sad is that National Geographic might have blinded this poor guy

I read an article a few years back on how filming animals who live in no/low light can lead to blinding them due to the lighting needed for the photography.

[flvegan]

9. Yeah, but can we eat it?

I mean, that IS all fish are here/good for, right?

[originalpckelly]

10. Looks like an alien from Mars Attacks.

:rofl:

[Marr]

11. That's an odd looking sea kitten.

Haha. "Sea kitten". That still cracks me up.

[BlooInBloo]

12. coooool.

[underpants]

13. "With a head like a fighter-plane cockpit"-what, are the trying to militarize the fish now?

:patriot:

[Canuckistanian]

14. Man, Monterey Bay finds the wierdest shit

I remember they found the Giant Siphonophore back in the '80s

[stevedeshazer]

15. I was wondering what became of Gary Bauer

[Taverner]

17. Equal parts fascinating, beautiful and horrifying

Wow

[Mollis]

18. It has a cute face.

haha :)

[Lorien]

22. Those bumps on the front are "smell organs"

the eyes are under the green objects inside it's head.

[Mollis]

24. I just like its lips, mainly.

Fishy kiss
haha

[KittyWampus]

30. almost like a dolphin beak

[kirby]

19. Must be a Democrat cuz a brain is present n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

20. In other news, he thinks YOU look really fuckin' weird, too. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. This is so cool... thanks

[bluedawg12]

23. Funny, I can read his mind.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. So ... where's the skull?

Is there bone there, but so translucent that we don't see it when a light is shone on it? Or has that just disappeared, and everything in the head is a bit squishy?

[jpak]

26. There is no evolution

There is no evolution
There is no evolution
There is no evolution
There is no evolution
There is no evolution
There is no evolution
There is no evolution
There is no evolution
There is no evolution
There is no evolution
There is no evolution
There is no evolution
:evilgrin:

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. In a link from that story - "weird new fish named in honour of fiance"

The eelpout Pachycara cousinsi is one of six previously unknown deep-sea fishes caught at depths of 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers) during a British research expedition to the remote Crozet Islands in the Indian Ocean between Antarctica and Africa.

Team member Nicola King of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, recently announced the new species.

P. cousinsi is known from just a single, 1.35 foot (41 centimeter) long specimen caught during the 2005 to 2006 voyage. King named the fleshy-lipped species in honor of her fianci, geophysicist Michael Cousins.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the marine biologist said.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/photogalleries/fish-pictures/

[Solly Mack]

28. That is one seriously cool fish

[PassingFair]

29. Why did they wait 5 YEARS before releasing the pictures?

This smells fishy.