Latest Barreleye Stories

Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute recently solved the half-century-old mystery of a fish with tubular eyes and a transparent head. Ever since the "barreleye" fish Macropinna microstoma was first described in 1939, marine biologists have known that it's tubular eyes are very good at collecting light. However, the eyes were believed to be fixed in place and seemed to provide only a "tunnel-vision" view of whatever was directly above the fish's head....

Barreleyes, also known as spookfish, are the first vertebrates found to use mirrors, rather than lenses, to focus light in its eyes, British researchers said. In nearly 500 million years of vertebrate evolution, and many thousands of vertebrate species living and dead, this is the only one known to have solved the fundamental optical problem faced by all eyes -- how to make an image -- using a mirror, biologist Julian Partridge of the University of Bristol said. While the spookfish looks...

The ocean is deep, dark, and murky but with the help of mirrors a fish in the Pacific gets along just fine. Scientists from Tuebingen University, Germany, discovered a rare, living brownsnout spookfish, Dolichopteryx longipes, last year off the coast of Tonga. They found that it was the first vertebrate ever found to use mirrors, rather than lenses, to focus light in its eyes.Professor Julian Partridge from the University of Bristol, said, "In nearly 500 million years of vertebrate...