Fish: Transparent Head and Tubular Eyes

Pardeep

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This bizarre deep-water fish called the Barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) has a transparent head and tubular eyes. It has extremely light-sensitive eyes that can rotate within his transparent, fluid-filled shield on its head, while the fish's tubular eyes, well inside the head, are capped by bright green lenses.

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The eyes point upward (as shown here) when the fish is looking for food overhead. They point forward when the fish is feeding. The two spots above the fish's mouth are not eyes: those are olfactory organs called nares, which are analogous to human nostrils.


This face-on view of a barreleye shows its transparent shield lit up by the lights of MBARI's remotely operated vehicle Tiburon. As in the other photos, the two spots above the fish's mouth are are olfactory organs called nares, which are analogous to human nostrils.



In this image, you can see that, although the barreleye is facing downward, its eyes are still looking straight up.
 
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