The black dragonfish ranks right up there with the most repulsive fish in the inky black abyss of the seas.
But aside from being a hideous abomination, this ugly guppy has some amazing adaptations. Like most of the creatures that call the crushing depths 600 meters (2,000 ft) below the surface home, the black dragonfish has light organs for signaling others of its kind and luring prey.
It also has light emitters on its belly to help break up its silhouette in case any sensitive eyes are staring up looking for a meal. And it has a gelatinous dermis between the fin rays that it can flash to startle predators.
So it’s a fish that can shine a lot of light from different parts of its body for several purposes. But none of that is as cool as its sniper vision.
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Most fish in the depths can’t see the color red. Red doesn’t travel very far underwater, so most bioluminescence is blue and green.
The black dragonfish uses those colors, but it also shines red. And since other fish can’t see the red light, it has an invisible flashlight to seek out prey. Incidentally, black dragonfish can’t really see the red, either.
It has a complicated vision system that uses a derivative of plant chlorophyll to convert the light back into the spectrum the dragonfish can perceive. How a fish figured out how to work plant genetics into its makeup is a question that baffles science.
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