Barreleye
The barreleye is a fish with a transparent head. They are found in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. They’re named for their eyes, which as this picture shows, are not where you probably think they are.
The fishes eyes point upwards, and are used to spot the movements and shadows of prey and predators. They can move them around to look forward, but primarily they look upwards. They see in high density color with an emphasis on purple shades. The greenish lumps you can see in the pictures are the lenses of their eyes. They are the only known vertebrate species to use a mirror to help focus images in the eyes.
Those grayish bits labeled as “not eyes” are actually basically noses. The fish uses them to smell prey and other things in the water. Some researchers think they steal prey from jellyfish, but this has yet to be documented. They postulate that this explains the odd covering of their eyes, since if they missed the entangled prey and hit the jellyfish, it would protect their eyes from stings.
They don’t have any teeth, and they eat primarily small floating things. The fish aren’t particularly large, the biggest is about half a meter long and most are less that 20 centimeters about 6 inches. One of the most interesting things about this fish is that although its existence has been known since 1939, this is the first ever specimen that has been found with the transparent dome intact. All other incidences occurred either by catching them in fishing nets, which mangles their delicate transparent surface, or when they wash up dead, in which case the dome, if not most of the body, can be in varying states of decay. They live over 2000 feet below the surface and primarily stay almost motionless most of the time. They only move when they spot prey.
The top picture was taken in 2004 but was only released in 2009, for reasons unknown.
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This is super freaky and really cool at the same time. Also, here’s a petition you might be interested in checking ou: http://www.causes.com/actions/1744642-tell-major-us-supermarket-to-boycott-frankenfish-genetically-engineered-salmon?ctm=causes_dot_com