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.
--Richard A. Lovett
Video: http://www.livescience.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=LS_090223_barreleye
The barreleye lives more than 2,000 feet (600 meters) beneath the ocean's surface, where the water is almost inky.
The transparent-headed fish spends much of its time motionless, eyes upward, MBARI scientists discovered while watching the barreleye fish from a remotely operated vehicle.
The green lens atop each of the fish's eyes filters out what little sunlight makes it down from the surface, allowing the fish to focus on the bioluminescence of small jellies or other prey passing overhead.
Then the eyes rotate forward to follow the prey, allowing the fish to home in on its meal.
[via: http://news.nationalgeographic.com]
