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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
 Posted - 12/20/2009 : 12:53:46
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Okay now. While not unknown, this is the first time the the Pacific Barreleye has been caught alive on film. And what a cool fish it is too.
Barreleye
The morphology of the Opisthoproctidae varies between three main forms: the stout, deep-bodied barreleyes of the genera Opisthoproctus and Macropinna; the extremely slender and elongate spookfishes of the genera Dolichopteryx and Bathylychnops; and the intermediate fusiform spookfishes of the genera Rhynchohyalus and Winteria.
All species have large, telescoping eyes which dominate and protrude from the skull, but enclosed within a large transparent dome of soft tissue[4]. These eyes generally gaze upwards, but can also be directed forwards.[5] The opisthoproctid eye has a large lens and a retina with an exceptionally high complement of rod cells and a high density of rhodopsin (the "visual purple" pigment); there are no cone cells. To better serve their vision, barreleyes have large, dome-shaped transparent to translucent heads; this presumably allows the eyes to collect even more incident light, likely protects the sensitive eyes from the nematocysts (stinging cells) of the siphonophores from which it is believed the Barreleye steals food, and necessarily either serves as an accessory lens (modulated by intrinsic or peripheral muscles) or is composed of tissue with a refractive index very close to that of seawater. A recent study disclosed that the Dolichopteryx longipes is the only vertebrate known to use a mirror (as well as a lens) in its eyes.[6] |
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2009 : 13:37:04 [Permalink]
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Amazing. Thanks filthy.
Really something else the diversity of life on this ever-evolving planet. |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
 Posted - 12/20/2009 : 14:11:48 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Randy
Amazing. Thanks filthy.
Really something else the diversity of life on this ever-evolving planet.
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I'm not filthy. But I take that as a complement. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2009 : 14:37:14 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
Originally posted by Randy
Amazing. Thanks filthy.
Really something else the diversity of life on this ever-evolving planet.
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I'm not filthy. But I take that as a complement.
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Ha!, sorry...too quick of a read, here. Thanks, Kil. |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 12/20/2009 : 15:49:16 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Randy
Amazing. Thanks filthy.
Really something else the diversity of life on this ever-evolving planet.
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Heh, de nada! 
I seem to recall writing something on these little guys a year or so ago. Don't recall where I sent it, if anywhere, but here's the illustration I used.
Yes, they are pretty remarkable, as are all bathypelagic species.
Thanks for the video, Kil. The above pic might have, indeed probably did, come from it.
Edited to add: I find it a little amazing that we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the depths of the seas. It's disheartening in that until someone grows a truck garden on the moon, the seas are much more important.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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| Edited by - filthy on 12/20/2009 16:05:21 |
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Pacific Barreleye has interesting adaptations
