Strange Fish Has See-Through Head

LiveScience

posted: 5 MINUTES AGO

Skip over this content

(Feb. 23) - A bizarre deep-water fish called the barreleye has a transparent head and tubular eyes. Since the fish's discovery in 1939, biologists have known the eyes were very good at collecting light. But their shape seemed to leave the fish with tunnel vision.

Now scientists say the eyes rotate, allowing the barreleye to see directly forward or look upward through its transparent head.

Skip over this content

Animals in the News

MBARI / Livescience

27 photos

What a cool-looking fish! The barreleye, first discovered in 1939, has a see-through head and tubular eyes. On Monday, scientists said its eyes rotate and allow the fish to look upward through its transparent head. The barreleye is adapted for life in a deep-sea environment where there's no sunlight. Click through for more animals in the news.

(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)

The barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) is adapted for life in a pitch-black environment of the deep sea, where sunlight does not reach. They use their ultra-sensitive tubular eyes to search for the faint silhouettes of prey overhead.

Scientists had thought the eyes were fixed in an upward gaze, however. This would make it impossible for the fish to see what was directly in front of them, and very difficult for them to capture prey with their small, pointed mouths.

Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute use videos from the institute's remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to study barreleyes off Central California. At depths of 2,000 to 2,600 feet (600 to 800 meters), the ROV cameras typically showed these fish hanging motionless in the water, their eyes glowing a vivid green in the ROV's bright lights. The video also revealed a previously undescribed feature of these fish — its eyes are surrounded by a transparent, fluid-filled shield that covers the top of the fish's head.

Sphere: Related Content