Whimsical world ocean fish

Active study of the underwater world began relatively recently - in the middle of the last century. For this purpose it was necessary to come up with sonar, scuba, bathyscaphes, orbiting satellites ... How many surprises was on the deep sea! A variety of forms of life is staggering.

Meet ten strange, terrible and rare fish that managed to find humanity.

Ambon scorpionfish (Eng. Ambon Scorpionfish, lat. Pteroidichthys amboinensis). It opened in 1856. Easily identifiable by a huge "eyebrows" - a specific build-up over the eyes. It is able to change color and fade. Leads "guerrilla" hunt - camouflaged on the bottom and waiting for prey. It is not uncommon and fairly well understood, but her extravagant appearance simply can not mention!

psychedelic fish-frog (Eng. Psychedelic Frogfish, lat. Histiophryne psychedelica). It opened in 2009. Very unusual fish - tail fin is bent to one side, modified pectoral fins and resemble terrestrial animal paws. The head is large, wide-set eyes directed forward, like in vertebrates, so fish is a kind of "face." Color yellow or reddish fish with winding white-blue stripes, radiating in different directions from the eyes of blue.

Unlike other fish that swim, if this kind of jumping moves, starting from the bottom of the pectoral fins and forcing the water from the gill slits, creating a jet thrust. Fish tail is bent to the side and can not directly guide the movement of the body, because it varies from side to side. Also fish can crawl along the bottom with the help of the pectoral fins, turning them both feet.

rag-pickers (Eng. Leafy Seadragon, lat. Phycodurus eques). It opened in 1865. The representatives of this species are notable for the fact that their entire body and head covered with spikes, simulating algal thallus. Although these processes and are similar to the fins at sea, they do not take part, serve to mask (as in the hunt for shrimp and for protection from enemies). Lives in the Indian Ocean waters around the southern, south-eastern and south-western Australia, as well as northern and eastern Tasmania. It feeds on plankton, small shrimp, seaweed. Lacking teeth, swallow food whole rag-picker.

Moon-fish (eng. Ocean Sunfish, lat. Mola mola). It opened in 1758. Compressed body sides are extremely high and short, which makes the fish very strange sight: it resembles a disk. The tail is very short, broad and truncated; spinal, anal and caudal fins are interconnected. Skin-moon fish thick and resilient, coated with small bony protuberance. You can often see the moon-fish lying on its side on the surface of the water. Adult amusement fish - a very bad swimmer, unable to overcome a strong current. It feeds on plankton and squid, eel larvae, salps, ctenophores and jellyfish. It can reach gigantic size of several tens of meters and weigh 1, 5 tons.

chimera of New World (Eng. Broadnose chimaera, lat. Rhinochimaera atlantica). It opened in 1909. Absolutely disgusting-looking jelly fish. It dwells on the deep bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and feeds on clams. I studied very poorly.

Plaschenosets (Eng. Frilled Shark, lat. Chlamydoselachus anguineus). It opened in 1884. These sharks looks much more like a strange sea snake or eel than his closest relatives. At the frilled shark gill openings, of which there are six on each side, covered by skin folds. In this case the first membrane gill slits intersect the fish's throat and are interconnected to form wide blade skin. Along with the goblin shark it is one of the rarest sharks on the planet. Not known more than a hundred copies of these fish. They studied very poorly.

Indonesian Coelacanth (Eng. Indonesian Coelacanth, Lat. Latimeria menadoensis). It opened in 1999. Living fossil and is probably the oldest fish in the world. Before the opening of the first representative tselikantov unit to which the coelacanth, it was considered completely extinct. Divergence time of two modern species of coelacanth is 30-40 million years old. In the living form is not caught more than a dozen.

Hairy angler (Eng. Hairy Angler, lat. Caulophryne polynema). It opened in 1930. A very strange and scary fish that live on the bottom of the deep, where there is no sunlight - between 1 km and deeper. To lure of the deep sea inhabitants uses a special glowing growth on the forehead, around the typical detachment anglerfish. Due to the special metabolism and extremely sharp teeth, he can have everything that comes, even if the victim is many times more and also is a predator. Propagated not less strange than it looks and is fed - in view of the extremely harsh conditions and scarcity of fish, male (ten times less than for the female) is attached to the flesh of his chosen and passes through all the necessary blood.

Fish-drop (Eng. Blobfish, lat. Psychrolutes marcidus). It opened in 1926. Often it is mistaken for a joke. In fact, it is quite real kind of deep-sea benthic marine fish family psychrolutidae that on the surface become "jelly" view "a sad expression". It is poorly understood, but it is enough to recognize it as one of the most bizarre. In the photo - a copy of the Australian Museum.

Macropinna Microstoma (English, Latin Macropinna microstoma..) - winner of quirkiness. It opened in 1939. She lives at a very great depth, so little studied. In particular, it is not understandable was the principle of the fish. It was believed that she must be very great difficulties due to the fact that she only sees up. Only in 2009 it has been thoroughly studied the structure of the fish eye. Apparently, when attempting to study it before the fish just could not stand the pressure change. The most notable feature of this type is a transparent dome-shaped shell that covers her head from the top and sides, and a large, usually upward, the cylindrical shape of the eye, which are under this shell. Dense and elastic covering sheath is attached to the back of the scales of the back and on the sides - a broad and transparent periocular bones that protect the organs of vision. This coating structure is normally lost (or at least greatly damaged) at the rise of fishes on the surface of the trawl and networks, however, until recently, its existence has not been known. By covering the shell is filled with a transparent liquid chamber in which, in fact, are fish eyes; eyes live fish are colored bright green and are separated by a thin bony septum, which, extending back expands and holds the brain. In front of each eye, but behind the mouth is large rounded pocket, which contains the olfactory receptor socket. That is something that at first glance the photos of live fish eyes seem, is actually olfactory organ. The green color is caused by the presence of a particular yellow pigment. It is believed that this pigment provides a special filtering of light coming from above, and reduces the brightness that allows the fish to distinguish bioluminescence potential prey. How many more strange and mysterious creatures living in the ocean?