14 thoughts on “Name That Animal

  1. It’s a deep-sea fish nicknamed the ‘barreleye,’ which I mainly remember because I think it ought to be ‘bubblehead’ and then am reminded it isn’t – it was named for specimens whose heads had collapsed after death, after they’d been dragged up to the shallows. Its eyes are the round green things on thick stalks inside the bubble, so it sees through its head even as we look into it. Very, very weird. I think the benthic seas are a lot like Wonderland, myself, full of strange creatures and seemingly impossible things like seas under the sea.

  2. I saw this on Nat Geo a while back. I think it’s called a “barreleye” ..I think. if I remember correctly. Why, I have no idea.. I would have called it a “see thru head” but now, lol! I really think it’s called a barreleye. What the real name if it is, I have no idea. I’m just lucky to remember this much! and just hope it’s right!

  3. ANSWER TIME

    This is a barreleye (aka spook fish) and yes – those two googly green orbs inside the transparent head are eyeballs, scanning the water above for stuff to eat. Wikipedia explains:

    [B]arreleyes remain just below the limit of light penetration and use their sensitive, upward-pointing tubular eyes—adapted for enhanced binocular vision at the expense of lateral vision—to survey the waters above. The high number of rods in their eyes’ retinae allows barreleyes to resolve the silhouettes of objects overhead in the faintest of ambient light (and to accurately distinguish bioluminescent light from ambient light), and their binocular vision allows the fish to accurately track and home in on small zooplankton such as hydroids, copepods, and other pelagic crustaceans.

Leave a Reply