TIL About One More Freaky Creature on Our Planet
Since my childhood I love to read about nature and animals, I turn on the TV only to watch scientific programs about them. So sometimes I think that I am hard to surprise with something or someone extraordinary, and of course I understand that I'm wrong.
The scientists almost every day discover new species of living organisms, and if remember that the World Ocean studied by only 3-4%, and not difficult to understand that there will be many more unusual and surprising discoveries ahead. And here is one of them:
Marcopinna Microstoma (Barreleye)
This species was discovered in 1939, but scientists were able to take pictures of live fish only 11 years ago. She lives in the Northern Pacific ocean at depths of 500-800 meters, reaches only 15 inches in length, her body is covered in dark scales.
The most interesting: Marcopinna Microstoma has a transparent skull, through which you can see her brains, literally.
Actually, it's not even a skull, and a transparent dome-shaped shell, which is attached to her back, sides and fins. This dome protects the internal organs from the pressure at great depths. Because of it, scientists couldn't study this species in detail: during ascent to the surface, the protective sheath is destroyed due to the pressure drop, and the fish immediately dies.
The pressure at the depth of her habitat in 81 times more than on earth.
At first glance, it may seem that she has a rather sad look, but the eyes are two green ball inside the head, and the holes in front of the muzzle are the olfactory receptors.
The green color is due by a special yellow pigment, which provides a filtering of light, coming from above, and lowers its brightness.
The structure of the eyes allows to change its direction from vertical to horizontal position, thus Marcopinna Microstoma has a very broad overview, and can see prey that is above and ahead.
A-vertically, B-horizontally
Today the basic version of such an unusual head structure is the protection from Siphonophorae's poison, on which Marcopinna microstoma preys. Evolution has ensured that her sensitive body parts are safe from the poisonous tentacles. Another interesting fact: the greater the depth of habitat of this fish, the large size she can reach.
sources: Macropinna Microstoma WiKi, Macropinna Microstoma transparent head, Fish with transparent head, imgaes from Google search
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The Earth is just so awesome! I once dreamed of being an oceanographer, so stuff like this interests me a lot. We know more about space than we do our own oceans, how freaky is that?? It's so great to discover freaky stuff like this just living in our waters. Just so fascinating.
I totally agree with you! We are very lucky to live in such an amazing world full of fantastic creatures. and the human thirst for knowledge and study of the surrounding world is an admirable quality.
Amazing!
Wow, this is really cool!
Wonderful post! I always enjoy your works!
I hope you will look my tour https://steemit.com/food/@olga.maslievich/food-in-travel-pie-mr-kurchak-of-clandestine-kondrati
Thank you @olga.maslievich :)
Cool stuff here! Thanks a lot!
thank you for reading!
Freaking! Definitely! :)
it looks like an alien from deep space :)
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Thanks a lot for sharing with the Steemit community these pieces of information. This is a very nice post, whose reading is very pleasant thanks to the great pictures.
As a bonus, and in addition to resteeming for exposure, we are awarding you a small 10 Steem Power deposit as a thank you for creating quality STEM related postings on Steemit. We hope you will continue to educate us all!
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We love the Pacfic Barreleye Fish!