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News from Newsweek:
An elusive "shape-shifting" fish was recently spotted off the coast of California in a rare sighting.
On August 6, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) tweeted a video of a whalefish.
"A whalefish was spotted last week with ROV Doc Ricketts," the research institute tweeted. "This whalefish [order Cetomimiformes] was encountered by [Steven Haddock's] team on their R/V Western Flyer expedition 2,013 meters deep offshore of Monterey Bay."
The video shows a bright orange fish swimming in the dark depths of the ocean.
[...] A mystery, indeed. In 2010, the Smithsonian reported the whalefish was first discovered in 1895. As one might have guessed, scientists named their newest specimen after its "whale-like appearance."
But the animal has three different forms: tapetails, bignose fish and whalefish. And because its three forms all look incredibly different from one another, scientists long believed that each form belonged to a different zoological family altogether.
[...] It wasn't until 2009 that scientists confirmed that all three fish were actually the same species.
The tapetail is, of course, a whalefish's "juvenile" form. As they mature, the larvae undergo a dramatic transformation process into either a bignose or a female whalefish, "completely remodeling their skulls and organs in order to prepare for their new lives," reported National Geographic. Both bignose fish and whalefish have very different diets and lifestyles, and in fact, a bignose fish's jaw bones "waste away" and their food pipes and stomachs disappear. Once fully transformed, they won't eat again.
Yes, there is video.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 15 2021, @10:14AM
Sure it is not an Oarfish? Those are seriously weird.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 15 2021, @11:35AM (1 child)
If we encounter one of these fish, should we address it as Founder?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 15 2021, @10:46PM
Deep cut!
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday August 15 2021, @01:00PM (1 child)
Only it was in the shape of a lanternfish, in the shape of a pelican eel, in the shape of a barreleye, in the shape of a stoplight loosejaw, in the shape of a black swallower, in the shape of a daggertooth.... in fact there's really only a single fish species down there, it just shape-shifts all the time.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 15 2021, @01:31PM
Not only down there. The research team was led by the same fish in the shape of Steven Haddock.