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Clear Headed
03/05/09 09:47 AM
Can you see through the top of your head?
Sometimes in science classes, particularly those involving biology and anatomy, teachers use models of various creatures that are transparent, revealing the inner organs, tissues and boney structures beneath the skin. Well, there's at least one deep sea fish that can offer this view in the flesh, at least for what's inside its head.
It's called a "barreleye fish," and it hangs out about a half mile below the surface of the sea, where it feeds mostly on jellyfish. The barreleye has a transparent, liquid-filled head, so you can see much of what is contained therein, notably the brain, jaw, etc. Of particular interest, the barreleye has the ability to rotate its eyes upward and to look through its transparent head to see what is overhead. For humans, this would be the equivalent of rolling up one's eyes and peering straight up through the top of one's skull. Almost sounds like a new X-Men character.
The barreleye is just one more example of the incredible ingenuity and variety that characterizes biological evolution on our planet. While most humans continue to suffer the arrogant delusion that we are the best thing ever invented through natural selection, a variety of other species, like the barreleye, harbor adaptations and capacities well beyond our reach.
It's called a "barreleye fish," and it hangs out about a half mile below the surface of the sea, where it feeds mostly on jellyfish. The barreleye has a transparent, liquid-filled head, so you can see much of what is contained therein, notably the brain, jaw, etc. Of particular interest, the barreleye has the ability to rotate its eyes upward and to look through its transparent head to see what is overhead. For humans, this would be the equivalent of rolling up one's eyes and peering straight up through the top of one's skull. Almost sounds like a new X-Men character.
The barreleye is just one more example of the incredible ingenuity and variety that characterizes biological evolution on our planet. While most humans continue to suffer the arrogant delusion that we are the best thing ever invented through natural selection, a variety of other species, like the barreleye, harbor adaptations and capacities well beyond our reach.