Nightmare hallucination: how a deep-sea telescope fish lives (5 photos + 1 video)

It lives in temperate, subtropical and tropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans







This creature looks like a nightmare hallucination that has taken on flesh. A wide mouth lined with sharp, curved teeth. An absurdly large head on a thin, elongated body. Strange tufts on the sides of the head - either hair, or ears, or feathers. Bare skin with a silvery coating.



But the most terrifying thing is the eyes: two wide tubes that light up like lanterns when light hits them. In English, this creature is called telescopefish, “telescope fish,” although it would be more appropriate to call it binocular fish. This is a member of the genus Gigantura. Lives at depths of 500–3000 meters. Swims vertically, head up.



The size is a little more than 20 cm (not counting the tail), but the elastic articulation of the jaw bones (like those of land snakes) allows these predators to swallow prey that is thicker than themselves.



The fact that both eyes look forward (and their size) suggests that when hunting, giants rely on vision to accurately judge the distance to prey.



But how can vision work at depths into which sunlight never penetrates? Maybe these fish hunt luminous animals? Although giganturas have been known to science since 1901, we still know little about their biology.