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Abiogenisis β Stoplight Loosejaw
Published: 2006-10-01 16:31:48 +0000 UTC; Views: 77258; Favourites: 1275; Downloads: 4973
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Description
[This fish is Real]The Loosejaw is a small deep water fish which through evolution has lost the skin on the floor of its mouth. This alows the jaw to shoot out with minimal water resistance to snare prey. The red light under its eye is used to spot food, as many creatures of the deep see cannot see red light. This gives the Loosejaw its own 'sniper scope'.
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Comments: 175
Holy crap, I had no idea their mouth was so complex. It looks so unnatural.
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Our jaws are actually weirdly simple, most fish have complex jaws with multiple unfused mobile elements
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Very interesting, now I have a bunch of ideasπ
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Hi Abiogenesis. Could we have a chat about permission to use this image in a publication? Thanks!
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I dunno, it doesn't look right. But it is an interesting idea non-the-less.
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Evolution fails again!
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The teeth are like needles and hold the food as it gets taken into the throat
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I still can't see that actually working. It seems scientists are a bit confused as well...
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this is awesome
do they actually have the extra teeth in their gills?Β
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Its in their throat, and actually this is very common for fish! They are called pharyngeal teethΒ
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oh! I never knew that, thanks
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THIS IS REAL?!?!?!
im never going swimming again
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Its real, but its like 3 inches long
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I've tried drawing loosejaws, the unhinging jaws are too complex, but wow look it's my favorite fish in all its epic glory, and nice job on the rattail fish!
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It is hard to find any good references, since its so small and there just arent many photos!
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Hey, the mouth is messed up anyway
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I completely agree, considering I commented WAY (unnecessary exaggerating) too late. Yeah. I tried to do one. Not sure if I messed up on the mouth... Meh.
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The red light is also to spot it's red prey, like the red deep sea shrimp. Red light does not reach that deep in the ocean so to most predators, the shrimp is invisible. But not to this guy!
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Also, the deep sea red shrimp can't actually see red light since it is not natural. This gives the stoplight loosejaw a "sniper scope", a headlight invisible to its prey. In fact, only about three known deep-sea animals can see red light, so the stoplight loosejaw doesn't only use it's ability to find prey and identify predators without being seen, but also uses it to communicate with other members of its species in a secret language that nothing else can understand.
DAMN, OCEAN, YOU FASCINATINGΒ Β
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Here again the proof, that earth's critters are far more alien, than any Sci-Fi creature from movie business.
I wonder, how extraterrestrials might look then?
Epic!
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When I saw "This fish is Real", I did not believe it. You make such wonderfully realistic alien designs; this has to be more of the same, right?
Then I googled it. My nightmares will never be the same again.
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Luckily its only about 2 inches long!
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Yeah, but that's still two inches too long for me.
On the plus side, you've captured it's nightmarishness wonderfully. *shudder*
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Staring at the complex design of the mouth gives me chills.
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Wow, I just saw this photo on I fucking Love Science group on Facebook... Then I started looking through your gallery, because its awesome, and BOOM.
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I find it even freakier that not only does it almost dislocate it's head to have it's loose jaw fly out to catch prey, it has a second pair of jaws under it's head, almost inside it's body.
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I almost can't believe this is real. And yet I'm not surprised. Most deep sea fishies are creepy freaky and all around weird.
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.... And just when I thought your alien creatures were the most imaginative ever, you show us Mother Nature out-does us all....
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if i designed this, people would have said it was implausible
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I didn't believe this was real. O________O I completely thought it was an alien. Oh my goodness.
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Hey! Love your work! It is so anatomically accurate! Even the colour of light emitted from the four sets of the photophores on Malacosteus niger are very accurate! Are you an ichthyologist? Did you draw it based on any photos? Thanks!
A fellow marine biologist
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Hey mate,
Actually I have no science qualifications, but I am an enthusiast and read about it as much as I can.
This image was done based on all the photos I could find (which were few) as well as using some existing illustrations as reference.
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Good on you mate! It's fantastic work!
I know what you mean. Most of the Malacosteus niger in photos are deformed dead fish and I struggled to find a good one in its natural habitat, let alone one actually feeding!
Again, great drawing! Keep up the good work and enthusiasm
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the weirdest part is that these fish are effectively filter feeders. normally their stomachs only contain crustaceans the size of pinheads when autopsied.
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How strange. Perhaps they ingest that type of food until a rare, large prey item can be found?
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that is a possibility, but by and large their primary prey appears to be copepods.
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It was suggested that the calanoid copepods the fish consumes provides the raw material for the synthesis of its visual pigment (chlorophyl-1-derived photosensitiser) so without eating the copepods the fish can't see. When the nutritional state of an individual deteriorates after prolonged "snacking" on copepods, it may be stimulated to revert to piscivory (eat fish) in the epipelagic zone.
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Yep that settles this... Im not goin in the water
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Its about 3 inches long
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Plus, where it lives is far from where you swim...like a mile or two below the ocean's surface, give or take.
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well yeah, duh is still terrifying though lol
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