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TheMightyChickadee [soylentnews.org] writes:

Not only are Dolphinfish not dolphins, for all porpoises, Whalefish are not whales. But they are strange. News from Newsweek [newsweek.com]:

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.

Yes, there is video. [twitter.com]

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.

In 1956, scientists discovered the tapetail, named after its "long, streamer-like tail." The creature had a "large upturned mouth" and unlike the whalefish, the tapetail lived near the ocean's surface. Scientists collected 120 tapetail samples, but upon further research, found that all the samples were larvae. Naturally, scientists wanted to know where they could find the creature's adult form.

A decade later, scientists added bignose fish to the official list of deep-sea creatures; however, all 65 specimens collected were male. Like the whalefish, this creature could be found in the depths of the ocean. The aptly named fish has "an unusual nose-like bulge on its snout with large organs for smelling," said the institute, and its jaw can't move.

Smithsonian also reported that in 1989, scientists began re-evaluating the whalefish.

"An Australian scientist studied all the whalefish specimens collected so far—a total of over 500 from all over the world," the institute said in their 2010 article. "Every adult was a female. Where were the males?"

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.

It's no wonder this unique species stumped scientists for so long.

That's the story, and they are sticking to it.

Original Submission