In the depths of the ocean live invisible animals with eyes instead of a head

Scientists are now aware of the existenceabout 8.7 million species of animals - this data was once shared by specialists from Census of Marine Life. However, science knows far from everything, because most of the oceans remain unexplored. At a depth of 200 to 1000 meters, the twilight zone begins, where sunlight does not penetrate. Being in complete darkness, living creatures living in this area do not evolve in the same way as animals on land and the upper layers of the ocean. They grow luminous shoots, huge teeth and other attributes of monsters from horror films. Among them there are invisible creatures - sometimes they get into fishing nets, they look like an empty place. How do they manage to remain invisible, is this possible?

These deep-sea creatures become visible only when they are taken out of the water.

Invisible animals in the depths of the oceans

The invisible inhabitants of the ocean depths areshrimp-like cystisms (Cystisoma). These creatures the size of a human fist live in places where there is no sunlight, at a depth of 200 meters and below. In addition to them, terrible predators like anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius) live in the twilight zone, so defenseless creatures have to somehow survive. In order not to become easy prey for terrible fish, cystizomas have one amazing feature - they have an almost perfectly transparent body.

Cystoma with almost transparent body

sea ​​angler

Sometimes fishermen accidentally discover cystisoma intrawl nets. Among the fish, they look like voids - you can only notice them by touching the body. According to researcher Karen Osborn (Karen Osborn), these creatures become at least slightly visible only after being removed from the water. In the ocean depths, especially in pitch darkness, they are invisible.

Image of cystisoma in color

See also: What happens to a person at great depths?

How can animals be invisible?

When examining the body with cystis under electronicunder a microscope, scientists noticed that they were covered with tiny protrusions resembling a pile carpet. On some parts of the body there is a layer of spherical formations - there is an assumption that these are bacteria unknown to science. Scientists believe that such a tissue structure allows photons of light to freely pass through the bodies of cystis and not be reflected, due to which they have invisibility.

It works just like an anti-reflective coating on a camera lens,” explained Karen Osborne.

In addition to this, the transparency of these creaturesdue to the special arrangement of internal organs. They are arranged in such a way that they do not reflect light - for example, one of the digestive organs is located directly under the eyes.

The head of cystisoma is a huge eye

Another weak point of cystis could betheir limbs. As a result of sudden movements, they would reflect light well, but this does not happen - tiny protrusions and spherical formations on the surface of tissues do their job perfectly.

See also: Why does the water in the seas and oceans glow at night?

How do animals with a transparent body reproduce?

But you can't be invisible all the time, can you?After all, cystizomas, like other living creatures, need to communicate with each other, at least for reproduction. But in this regard, they are doing well, because on the head of males there are small antennae. They emit chemicals, guided by which individuals of the opposite sex easily converge and mate.

Cystisomes have an ideal body for life in the twilight zone of the ocean

In general, cystizomas are perfectly accustomed to the depthsoceans. Due to their transparency, they are excellent at hiding from predators and have the ability to easily catch even smaller creatures and feed on them. There are no problems due to invisibility - thanks to a special sense of smell, males and females quickly find each other and breed.

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Many amazing things live in the depths of the oceans.creatures - the discovery of new species always attracts a lot of attention. For example, scientists once found siphonophores, which resemble huge snakes and live at a depth of 600 to 2,300 meters. You can read about these creatures up to 47 (!) Meters long in this article.