This Fish Has A Transparent Head Explained

Ajouté : 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]The barreleye fish, this deep sea organism lives at depths between 2,000 and 2,600 ft off the coast of California and grows to approximately 1.5 ft in length.

[00:00:10]The defining anatomical feature of this species is a completely transparent fluid-filled dome covering the top of its head, functioning like a pressurized cockpit canopy. Until 2009 when researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute captured the first intact video of a live specimen, the dome was thought to be flat because it collapsed when specimens were brought up in deep sea nets.

[00:00:34]The two small indentations on the front of its face are olfactory organs, while its actual eyes are the two large bright green cylinders enclosed entirely inside the clear head, which rotate vertically to track the silhouettes of small jellyfish against the faint surface light.