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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

??!! / Science Brains on the Outside?

Posted by Lindy West on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 10:35 AM

BRAINS ON THE OUTSIDE!!

Have you seen the fish with the see-through head yet!?

Look at it here. Right now.

The barreleye lives more than 2,000 feet (600 meters) beneath the ocean's surface, where the water is almost inky.

The transparent-headed fish spends much of its time motionless, eyes upward, MBARI scientists discovered while watching the barreleye fish from a remotely operated vehicle.

The green lens atop each of the fish's eyes filters out what little sunlight makes it down from the surface, allowing the fish to focus on the bioluminescence of small jellies or other prey passing overhead.

Then the eyes rotate forward to follow the prey, allowing the fish to home in on its meal.

1. It looks like Pixar made it.

2. Those green things inside its great glass dome-head are EYEBALLS. Those things on the front that look like eyeballs are actually NOSEBALLS OR SOMETHING!

3. "small jellies"

4. AAAAAAHHHHHHH! Brains brains brains brains brains! Look at its braaaaaains!

Via National Geographic, the insane fucking animal kingdom, and Meags.

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Comments (24) RSS

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Yes! That is outstanding.

The two wholes where its eyes used to be are the freakiest part.

Posted by TValley on February 24, 2009 at 10:41 AM

Talk about adaptation. Fresh on the heels of Darwin's birthday, this makes me smile.

Posted by Layne on February 24, 2009 at 10:55 AM

The oceans are the best thing about nature. Amazing.

Posted by Abby on February 24, 2009 at 10:57 AM

points off for being misleading. the brain remains on the inside, lindy. that is where it is located. more protected that way, as nature intended.

Posted by ellarosa on February 24, 2009 at 10:59 AM

LOVE IT!!!! thanks for posting!!

Posted by mr. herriman on February 24, 2009 at 10:59 AM

What a cool photo. (On a side note, I'm amazed people can look at animals like this and STILL question evolution.)

Posted by GrammarCop on February 24, 2009 at 11:03 AM

I think I dated that. Once.

Posted by MacDyver on February 24, 2009 at 11:04 AM

Is anyone else going to have nightmares about this thing like me? Thanks, Lindy! :-P

Posted by ScottieYahtzee on February 24, 2009 at 11:04 AM

Neat-o! (I wonder if they're good eats.)

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty on February 24, 2009 at 11:10 AM

Oh barreleye. Won't you make me the happiest man on earth and say you'll be my wife?

Posted by Chivalrous Meags on February 24, 2009 at 11:27 AM

Holy Penis! I want to go on an adventure with that little bastard!

Posted by Billy Nilly on February 24, 2009 at 11:31 AM

What is the purpose of this evolutionary adaptation? Can anyone explain? I'm so freaked out. Where's Golob?

Posted by Rotten666 on February 24, 2009 at 11:39 AM

wow that reminds me of those phones that came out in the 80's - i was sooooo jealous of a friend of mine who got one.

best image i can find on a short search is: http://www.earlyxer.com/getattachment/1f…

Posted by jezbian on February 24, 2009 at 11:48 AM

Haha... I had one of those, jezbian, but the colored parts inside were, like, NEON colors.

Posted by leek on February 24, 2009 at 11:58 AM

leek - yeah that's what my friend's was like...i seem to remember an almost neon-like glow coming from it? but not a neon light - there were some 'retro' type models i saw a few years ago that actually had a neon light in them.

i just loved being able to see the circuitry...plus there was a blinking light when it rang. SO RAD, especially amongst all her duran duran posters....

Posted by jezbian on February 24, 2009 at 12:10 PM

i'm pretty impressed with the whole "we'll just put the eyes completely INSIDE the head and make the head transparent" idea this fish has. there are some really neat-O critters down in the depths.

Posted by rara avis on February 24, 2009 at 12:22 PM

The adaptation and placement of the eyes probably allow it to detect even minute changes in light values, which could indicate the presence of predators or prey, which would be very useful in such a dark environment. The enormouse nose bulbs would be very handy as well.

Posted by Inkweary on February 24, 2009 at 12:34 PM

These posts are way better than Mudede's natural history posts.

Thanks Lindy.

Posted by STJA on February 24, 2009 at 12:38 PM

So did the flash they used to photograph this fish completely fry its optic sensors?

Posted by zzz on February 24, 2009 at 1:06 PM

Noseballs? I'm fucking crying right now. ha

Posted by Shelby on February 24, 2009 at 1:26 PM

Lindy, you just made it feel like Friday. Thanks.

Posted by snakes on February 24, 2009 at 1:31 PM

There you go. Promoting the barreleye agenda.

Posted by tacomagirl on February 24, 2009 at 1:50 PM

The transparent "dome" also protects the eyes from the stinging chemicals of the jellies which are its prey of choice - in other words, yet another product of an evolutionary "arms race".

Posted by catsnbanjos on February 24, 2009 at 2:54 PM

@13 I totally forgot about that phone. My best friend had one. Really enhanced that first acid trip in 1989. Every time it rang we lost our minds, and it rang a lot since we had inadvertently left a friend of ours at the park when we started tripping...

Posted by threnody on February 25, 2009 at 12:06 AM