dangerousliasons:
Larval Flounder
Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic
A translucent body disguises a larval flounder to keep it safe from predators. It will lose this defense mechanism later in life. Flounder undergo several striking physical transformations during their lifetimes. Very young flounder swim upright and have an eye on each side of their face. As they age the fish begin to swim on their sides and one eye slowly migrates until both are on the body’s “top side.”
(via theoceanrolls)
rhamphotheca:
Recently Discovered Deep Sea: Tonguefish
by Christine Dell’Amore
The Tangaroa Seamount offered up a new species of Tonguefish in the Symphurus genus.
Like many other flatfish, such as flounder, tonguefish have both their eyes on one side and are widely distributed on active seamounts in the western Pacific Ocean. There, the fish thought to graze on the bacterial mats created near warm nutrient flows.
(via: National Geo) (photo: NIWA)
Tonguefish are strange. They’re so called because they sort of look like one, given they don’t have tails. Their bodies just end in a point, with fin rays all around the outside. We have a species of this coast, the California tonguefish, which will occasionally be caught in loads of sardines, if purse seine drags the bottom.
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