![]() But each shares the same source of illumination: bioluminescent bacteria. Others have longer, more complex lures, or even multiple glowing, dangling appendages. Some anglerfish species have very simple lures-which are also known as escas-with just one little dot of light at the tip. That level of variety extends to the glowing lure they use to attract mates and prey. “There’s a lot of different anglerfishes, and they all look pretty different and come in different sizes,” says Bill Ludt, a coauthor on the paper and the museum’s ichthyology curator. ![]() Researchers have known for some time that this dazzling, deadly display is a typical feeding tactic of all anglerfish species, but a study on the rare Pacific footballfish sheds new light on how they get their sparkle.Īccording to results published in the Journal of Fish Biology, this particular species doesn’t just emit a glow: it also converts its shining colors into “an amazing disco ball of light,” says study author Todd Clardy, the ichthyology collections manager at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM). The last thing they’ll see is a spiny, globe-shaped shadow emerging from behind the glowing orb-then they’ll be ensnared in the toothy maw of an anglerfish. Little do they know that they’re the ones about to become a meal. They likely think that they’ve stumbled upon a prized floating morsel in a relatively resource-deprived habitat. The glimmering shades of blue and green mesmerize curious fish and squid, tempting them closer. But a bobbing bright light sometimes breaks through the abyss. County (NHM) SHAREĭeep below the ocean-3,000 feet beneath the surface, where sunlight cannot seep-the sea is smothered in a cold, inky darkness. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum of L.A. County studied its bioluminescent lure under a new light. Ichthyologists at the Natural History Museum of L.A. ![]() If engineers could mimic what the fish do, it may make producing ultrablack materials easier, Osborn says.This Pacific footballfish, a type of rare anglerfish, washed ashore in Newport Beach, California in May 2021. Those animals’ feathers or scales have multiple layers of intricate micro- or nanostructures to absorb light ( SN: 1/9/18). The newfound mechanism is simpler than how birds or butterflies achieve ultrablackness. Other dark-colored fish tend to have unpigmented gaps between melanosomes, which leads to more light being reflected and a more visible fish. The melanosomes’ size, shape and arrangement may help direct light that isn’t absorbed by an individual melanosome to others in the layer, trapping even more light. The skin has a layer of closely packed, circular, melanin-containing structures called melanosomes that can absorb up to 99.95 percent of light with wavelengths similar to ambient sunlight in the ocean or light from bioluminescent animals. The researchers also examined skin from nine species using electron microscopy and calculated how structures in the skin might absorb light. The team then measured how much light reflected off of the fish. Osborn and her colleagues captured 18 species of ultrablack fish from up to 2,000 meters deep in Monterey Bay off California and in the Gulf of Mexico. Davis et al/ Current Biology 2020Įnter superblack skin. The melanosomes are found beneath a membrane (blue arrows) just under the skin’s surface. These clustered circular structures (shown in electron micrographs of the Pacific blackdragon) absorb nearly all light that hits them, including bioluminescence from other fish. “There’s nowhere to hide.” Unlike normal black fish, ultrablack deep-sea fish have a layer of tightly packed, pigment-containing structures, called melanosomes (red arrows), in the skin. For creatures trying to swim undetected, living in these depths is “like trying to play hide and seek on a football field,” says Karen Osborn, a marine biologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The skin may hide the fish from predators, or prey, and might inspire new designs for ultrablack materials used in telescopes or fabric.Īlthough little light reaches the deep sea, bioluminescent organisms can brighten the inky darkness. That camouflage is the result of a layer of densely packed pigment-containing structures just below the skin’s surface, researchers report online July 16 in Current Biology. Some deep-sea fish have ultrablack skin capable of soaking up almost all light that hits it, making the fish nearly invisible. In the depths of the ocean, it might take more than a little light to illuminate some of the planet’s darkest fish.
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