Anderson Joshua@anderson_joshua

Follow

Glass octopus Vitreledonella richardi

Somewhere below the point where sunlight gives out, there are animals built to be almost impossible to see. The glass octopus, Vitreledonella richardi, is one of them. Its body is nearly transparent, and that is the whole trick: in open water, a predator looking straight at it has very little to lock onto. The eyes sit in shapes you would not expect, and the internal anatomy shows through the tissue, which makes the thing look less like an animal and more like a sketch of one. Worth flagging something about the images that get passed around. Those blue and orange glows are an artist's addition. Nobody has confirmed the species actually lights up like that, so enjoy the picture but don't file it under biology. What sticks with me is the logic of it. In a place where being spotted can be the end of you, near-invisibility turns out to be a solid defense, and nature got there by stripping things away rather than adding them. Deep water keeps producing creatures that feel invented, and plenty of them have never been catalogued at all. If our own oceans can hold something this strange, the unexplored depths of other ocean worlds are a fun thing to wonder about. #NatureScenery

1h

Anderson Joshua@anderson_joshua

Follow

Glass octopus Vitreledonella richardi

Somewhere below the point where sunlight gives out, there are animals built to be almost impossible to see. The glass octopus, Vitreledonella richardi, is one of them. Its body is nearly transparent, and that is the whole trick: in open water, a predator looking straight at it has very little to lock onto. The eyes sit in shapes you would not expect, and the internal anatomy shows through the tissue, which makes the thing look less like an animal and more like a sketch of one. Worth flagging something about the images that get passed around. Those blue and orange glows are an artist's addition. Nobody has confirmed the species actually lights up like that, so enjoy the picture but don't file it under biology. What sticks with me is the logic of it. In a place where being spotted can be the end of you, near-invisibility turns out to be a solid defense, and nature got there by stripping things away rather than adding them. Deep water keeps producing creatures that feel invented, and plenty of them have never been catalogued at all. If our own oceans can hold something this strange, the unexplored depths of other ocean worlds are a fun thing to wonder about. #NatureScenery

1h