Top 100 Stories of 2009 #41 “Strange Gaze of the See-through Fish” (DISCOVER, January/February 2010)

© 2004 MBARI

The barreleye fish has eyes that gaze upward right through a transparent shield covering its head. This year ecologists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute studied the first-ever underwater video of the strange fish. They also managed to recover one alive and get a good look at that shield, which may protect its eyes as it steals prey from stinging jellyfish.

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~ by Janet Fang on January 19, 2010.