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"SUBHANALLAH"
Translucent Creatures
National Geographic
Photos by Chris Newbert/Minden Pictures
"A pelagic, or open-ocean, octopus gives off a neon
glow in Hawaii. Most species of octopus have no
internal skeleton, unlike other cephalopods."
"A photographer's strobe gives a violet sheen to this translucent
juvenile roundbelly cowfish off the coast of Kona, Hawaii. Also
known as the transparent boxfish, the roundbelly cowfish has two
short horns in front of its eyes."
"A hydromedusa spreads its luminescent tentacles in the
Weddell Sea near Antarctica."
"Tiny marine snails known as sea butterflies take many forms,
including heart-shaped, such as this species in Antarctica's Weddell
Sea."
"A tiny jellyfish, with tentacles folded and its orange
central mass visible through its transparent body, drifts in
the waters of Antarctica's Weddell Sea."
This bizarre deep-water fish called the Barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) has a
transparent head and tubular eyes. It has extremely light-sensitive eyes that can
rotate within his transparent, fluid-filled shield on its head, while the fish's
tubular eyes, well inside the head, are capped by bright green lenses. The eyes
point upward (as shown here) when the fish is looking for food overhead. They
point forward when the fish is feeding. The two spots above the fish's mouth are
not eyes: those are olfactory organs called nares, which are analogous to human
nostrils. (Photo by MBARI)
Found in Central America, from Mexico to Panama , the Glasswing
Butterfly (Greta Oto) is a brush-footed butterfly where its wings are
transparent. The tissue between the veins of its wings looks like glass.
(Photo by Hemmy)
This jellyfish-like animals known as Salps feed on small plants in the water called
phytoplankton (marine algae). They are transparent, barrel-shaped animals that
can range from one to 10cm in length. (Photo by DM)
Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. They are found
in every ocean, from the surface to the deep sea. Many jellies are so
transparent that they are almost impossible to see. The one above is from the
Arctapodema genus, with a size of an inch-long (2.5-centimeter-long). (Photo
by Bill Curtsinger)