Transparency in marine animals is something rare but not super uncommon. However, it's mostly limited to "basic" animals like jellyfish.
For more complex creatures, it's almost impossible to achieve since there are some many kinds of tissues and organs involved.
Yet, nothing is impossible! Check out this shrimp like creature I learnt about today:
Damn! Other than that little orange spot it's entirely see through! It's almost impossible to believe such a thing exists even after watching it on a video.
So what you just saw is an individual of the Cystisoma genus. These are deep sea amphipods typically at depths of hundreds of meters where there is very little light, making them pretty much invisible.
The only pigmentation they have is in their eyes but even those are adapted in such a way to minimize their visibility. Normally, the eye pigments are concentrated in a small area. However, in cystisoma the retina is spread in sheet of tiny reddish dots that are almost impossible for most animals to see.
Essentially, the only organ they fail to conceal is their stomach as you can see in the video I posted above.
Other than the lack of pigments, they employ another neat mechanisms to achieve their transparency. Their body is covered by microscopic sperical structures that act as an antireflective coating. The exact nature of these spheres is unknown, one theory is that they maybe colonies of yet undescribed bacteria. Wikipedia and this article by The guardian has some more info on this amazing critters if you'd like to read more on them.
I'll leave you now with some more vids:
Ok frens, this is it for today! See you soon with more bizarre wonders of mother nature!
Posted Using INLEO
Ur pee pee made of the same thing ? !PIMP !BBH !DOOK
No your momma
Oh so she never abandoned me I just could never see her 🤣 !PIMP
You received an upvote of 100% from Precious the Silver Mermaid!
Please remember to contribute great content to the #SilverGoldStackers tag to create another Precious Gem.
Never seen such a transparent animal, I would think it was something like ice.
That thing is awesome! Too bad we can't turn transparent, that would cool. Nice find there, I'd never heard of this one before.
!DUO
!PIMP
You just got DUO from @thebighigg.
They have 1/1 DUO calls left.
Learn all about DUO here.
Figures if it couldn't be some weird deep-sea creature! It's so big to be such a thing... I wonder the taste 😋
!PIZZA
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@davideownzall(5/15) tipped @trumpman
Come get MOONed!
How crazy about the Cystisoma! I had no idea that such a complex and almost completely invisible animal existed. I find it amazing how nature finds such ingenious ways to adapt, like those anti-reflective spheres. I'm definitely left wanting to know more... I'm already going straight to read that article you mentioned.
I had no idea a genus like Cystisoma existed before and the way it reduces reflection almost like anti-reflective coating, is truly fascinating.
That’s crazy it’s like looking at an X-Ray with orange spots on it.
very very cool and interesting creature.. do people eat these things? that would be freaky, I bet. 😜☺️✌️
Imagine if it were humans. You can see what they had for breakfast and digest before your eyes 😅
That is a weird animal. I wouldn't even recognize it in reality, and I would be wondering what it is. I wonder if people eat them and if they are delicious or not.