THIS FISH CAN SEE FOREVER.

[Kai]

http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2009/barreleye/barreleye.html

Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute recently solved the half-century-old mystery of a fish with tubular eyes and a transparent head. Ever since the "barreleye" fish Macropinna microstoma was first described in 1939, marine biologists have known that its tubular eyes are very good at collecting light. However, the eyes were believed to be fixed in place and seemed to provide only a "tunnel-vision" view of whatever was directly above the fish's head. A new paper by Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler shows that these unusual eyes can rotate within a transparent shield that covers the fish's head. This allows the barreleye to peer up at potential prey or focus forward to see what it is eating.

Deep-sea fish have adapted to their pitch-black environment in a variety of amazing ways. Several species of deep-water fishes in the family Opisthoproctidae are called "barreleyes" because their eyes are tubular in shape. Barreleyes typically live near the depth where sunlight from the surface fades to complete blackness. They use their ultra-sensitive tubular eyes to search for the faint silhouettes of prey overhead.

Although such tubular eyes are very good at collecting light, they have a very narrow field of view. Furthermore, until now, most marine biologists believed that barreleye's eyes were fixed in their heads, which would allow them to only look upward. This would make it impossible for the fishes to see what was directly in front of them, and very difficult for them to capture prey with their small, pointed mouths.

Those black dots are not eyes, they're olfactory organs. The eyes are the green objects in the transparent head.



This is a major WTF EVOLUTION moment for me.

[Vene]

This is a major WTF EVOLUTION moment for me.

Same here, this fish is incredibly awesome.  It's also a great example of why I like the sciences.

[Kai]

FFS the damn thing looks like a CG!

[Elder Iptuous]

I hereby demand that we evolve transparent face shields for to protect our eyes.
all in favor, say 'eye'.

ETA:
from Wiki:"... The family name Opisthoproctidae is derived from the Greek words opisthe ("behind") and proktos ("anus")..."

it does not further explain

....

just saying...

[Kai]

probably a reference to where the anus is located, looks like in the middle of the caudal fin from the picture.

[Nast]

I can't figure out if that fish looks cute, loathesome or both!

In fact, it's safe to say that I have never seen a fish that ever looked remotely like that. Deep sea life ftw.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That is fucking awesome. I wish our heads were transparent!

[Richter]

I don't.  You could blink, but never actually stop seeing.

[Jasper]

Wow, I don't know a damn thing about life.

[Telarus]

At one point, our heads were transparent to visible light. The Pineal gland (don't f'n start) was once an organ exposed to light in most vertebrates. According to RAW this has weird occultnick connotations.

[Jasper]

At one point, our heads were transparent to visible light.

I hate to do this, but Citation?  I'm not big on archeobiology, but it seems implausible.

Again,

Wow, I don't know a damn thing about life.

[Telarus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland#Miscellaneous_anatomy

Pinealocytes in many non-mammalian vertebrates have a strong resemblance to the photoreceptor cells of the eye. Some evolutionary biologists believe that the vertebrate pineal cells share a common evolutionary ancestor with retinal cells.[7]

In some vertebrates, exposure of the pineal to light can directly set off a chain reaction of enzymatic events which regulate circadian rhythms.[8] Some early vertebrate fossil skulls have a pineal foramen (opening). This corroborates with the physiology of the modern "living fossils", the lamprey and the tuatara, and some other vertebrates which have a parietal organ or "third eye" which, in some of them, is photosensitive. The third eye represents evolution's earlier approach to photoreception.[9] The structures of the third eye in the tuatara are homologous to the cornea, lens and retina, though the latter resembles that of an octopus rather than a vertebrate retina. The asymmetrical whole consists of the "eye" to the left and the pineal sac to the right. "In animals that have lost the parietal eye, including mammals, the pineal sac is retained and condensed into the form of the pineal gland."[9]

Fossils seldom preserve soft anatomy. The brain of the Russian Melovatka bird, about 90 million years old, is an exception, and it shows a larger-than-expected parietal eye and pineal gland.[10]

In humans and other mammals, the light signals necessary to set circadian rhythms are sent from the eye through the retinohypothalamic system to the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) and the pineal.

Yeah, it's wikipedia, but the references are cited @ the bottom. I'd like to research more about activating the bolded and italicized systems through bio-feedback or other techniques.

[Template]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland#Miscellaneous_anatomy

Pinealocytes in many non-mammalian vertebrates have a strong resemblance to the photoreceptor cells of the eye. Some evolutionary biologists believe that the vertebrate pineal cells share a common evolutionary ancestor with retinal cells.[7]

In some vertebrates, exposure of the pineal to light can directly set off a chain reaction of enzymatic events which regulate circadian rhythms.[8] Some early vertebrate fossil skulls have a pineal foramen (opening). This corroborates with the physiology of the modern "living fossils", the lamprey and the tuatara, and some other vertebrates which have a parietal organ or "third eye" which, in some of them, is photosensitive. The third eye represents evolution's earlier approach to photoreception.[9] The structures of the third eye in the tuatara are homologous to the cornea, lens and retina, though the latter resembles that of an octopus rather than a vertebrate retina. The asymmetrical whole consists of the "eye" to the left and the pineal sac to the right. "In animals that have lost the parietal eye, including mammals, the pineal sac is retained and condensed into the form of the pineal gland."[9]

Fossils seldom preserve soft anatomy. The brain of the Russian Melovatka bird, about 90 million years old, is an exception, and it shows a larger-than-expected parietal eye and pineal gland.[10]

In humans and other mammals, the light signals necessary to set circadian rhythms are sent from the eye through the retinohypothalamic system to the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) and the pineal.

Yeah, it's wikipedia, but the references are cited @ the bottom. I'd like to research more about activating the bolded and italicized systems through bio-feedback or other techniques.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?isnumber=4734037&arnumber=4734300&count=30&index=9

[fomenter]

Yeah, it's wikipedia, but the references are cited @ the bottom. I'd like to research more about activating the bolded and italicized systems through bio-feedback or other techniques.

i have a power drill  a flashlight and can google up some diagrams of the brain if you would like to experiment...

[Vene]

Yeah, it's wikipedia, but the references are cited @ the bottom. I'd like to research more about activating the bolded and italicized systems through bio-feedback or other techniques.

i have a power drill  a flashlight and can google up some diagrams of the brain if you would like to experiment...

You don't have to google them, I have an old anatomy lab text with all kinds of brainy pictures.