From science writer (and atheist) Natalie Angier comes some photos and a link to the winners of the annual underwater photography contest of the University of Miami.
The grand prize photo of two gobies (below) was taken by Tobias Friedrich of Germany on a dive near Marsa Alam, Egypt:
Several fish species are transparent (my father had a “glass catfish” in his aquarium), and it may be an adaptation for camouflage. (See more transparent animals here.) But camouflage can’t explain this remarkable deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes (click to play video):
Two more winners: a pygmy seahorse, Hippocampus bargibanti, photographed by Michael Gallagher, United Kingdom (it’s well camouflaged among the corals):
and—P. Z. will love this—two cuttlefish in flagrante delicto, photographed by Luc Rooman:
Damn. Those Gobies are just beautiful. They’re all beautiful, really.
PZ does love him some cephaloporn.
WC Fields vindicated, at last!
The isn’t a picture PZ would like – the IS PZ! 🙂
Beautiful images – thanks for pointing them out.
The deep sea fish doesn’t need pigment I suppose, perhaps like pale or colourless cave creatures?
Got to the frog picture and thought, hey, they aren’t marine! Then noticed it was an underwater photography contest, not specifically a marine one.
No accident, though, that the rest of the entries WERE marine–incredibly strange denizens, there.
And the Macropinna vid was fascinating; as were the pics & brief descriptions at the transparent animal link. Esp. liked the cold-water fish relying solely on dissolved oxygen rather than any O-carrying cell/pigment…
If you think we can’t see through this transparent attempt to make us go “Ooh” and “Aah” well…you’re right!
Are those two fish the same ones which starred in the movie “The Gobie Twin”?
GROAN! (& lol)
“The two spots above the fish’s mouth are not eyes: those are olfactory organs called nares, which are analogous to human nostrils.”
Analogous, not homologous?
If so, curious – though I guess bilateralness explains same symmetry and localization (fewer openings?) convergence to analogous trait.