Smell Of Summer Rain

Daily fish fact #360

Glasshead barreleye!

This deep sea fish has essentially two pairs of eyes! Along with its main pair of eyes, it has two round, light-collecting mirror organs on the sides of its head which even have a kind of retina! With its four eyes, the fish can see shadows from above and bioluminescence from sides and below!

🕷️Kenva🕷️

Comb jellies—also known as ctenophores—come in a wide range of shapes and sizes. Many are transparent, but some deep-sea species, like the abyssal comb jelly, Beroe abyssicola, are ruby red or deep purple in color. So far, scientists have described approximately 200 ctenophore species.

Comb jellies swim by flicking hair-like ctenes back and forth. When the lights of our submersibles illuminate an abyssal comb jelly, the ctene rows diffract the light into the colors of the rainbow, creating those dazzling disco lights.

Most animals in the midnight zone produce bioluminescence. The abyssal comb jelly has a scarlet stomach that absorbs the light produced by meals digesting in its gut. The red pigment absorbs blue-green bioluminescence, keeping Beroe hidden from predators. Many other deep-sea jellies employ a similar strategy. Learn more about these dazzling denizens of the deep on our website.

From: Istoria e dimostrazioni intorno alle macchie solari e loro accidenti comprese in tre lettere scritte all'illvstrissimo signor Marco Velseri … dal signor Galileo Galilei … Si aggiungono nel fine le lettere, e disquisizioni del finto Apelle, Giacomo Mascardi, Roma, 1613 [Yale University Library, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, CT]

THE MATRIX 1999, dir. The Wachowskis

New Year, New Creatures of the Deep 🌊

Stygiomedusa gigantea, the giant phantom jelly

Just look at her go, Stygiomedusa you gorgeous dramatic girl

Though spotting these ghostly giants is rare, they are known to live in the midnight (bathypelagic) zone. There is little to no shelter in this area and other fish have been observed taking refuge amid the jellies long voluminous ribbon like tentacles, that can get up to 33 feet long

Love to sea it 🌊

From: Istoria e dimostrazioni intorno alle macchie solari e loro accidenti comprese in tre lettere scritte all'illvstrissimo signor Marco Velseri … dal signor Galileo Galilei … Si aggiungono nel fine le lettere, e disquisizioni del finto Apelle, Giacomo Mascardi, Roma, 1613 [Yale University Library, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, CT]

SP. 101 - Animatrix (2003)

Barrel eyes, they’re watching you! 👀 

The barreleye fish, Macropinna microstoma, has extremely light-sensitive eyes that can rotate within a transparent, fluid-filled shield on its head. The fish’s tubular eyes are capped by bright green lenses. Here, the eyes are pointed upward in search of food. The two spots above the barreleye’s mouth—where we might expect to see eyes on a fish—are actually olfactory organs called nares, which are similar to human nostrils. Learn more about this extraordinary animal of the deep.

by Natan Vance