Scientists just found a faceless fish — because the deep sea isn’t already scary enough
We’re all very aware that the ocean is full of creatures we know absolutely nothing about. When we DO come in contact with them, we discover that some of them are scary AF. Which is exactly what just happened when scientists found a faceless fish in Australia.
The faceless fish was living in the deep sea, just minding its own business, when researchers from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and Museum Victoria discovered it.
And you guys, it’s giving us the heebie-jeebies (no offense, fish).
“It’s seriously out of the ordinary,” Dianne Bray told Mashable. Bray is one of the scientists currently on board the research vessel Investigator, which is on a month-long journey on the east coast of Australia searching for what lurks below.
"It came up from a depth of about 4,000 meters off the Newcastle region of New South Wales, and we had no idea what it was," Bray added. "Literally, we couldn't see any kind of eyes on the outside."
Here's an ID on the "faceless" fish. It's a cusk eel (Typhlonus nasus) https://t.co/2kJliLlIK4 #WildID img: CSIRO pic.twitter.com/XaZjA9sDRd
— Sarah Keartes (@sarahkeartes) May 31, 2017
The scientists took tissue samples of the fish for genetic analysis, as one does when one comes across an unidentifiable fish without a face. But then one of Bray’s colleagues found an image of the same type of fish in a book, and they realized it had been discovered during the Challenger expedition of 1872-1876, the world’s first global oceanographic expedition.
The scientific name of the fish is Typhlonus nasus, but scientists prefer to call it by its nickname, the “Faceless Cusk.”
Wondering what a live "faceless fish" (cusk eel) looks like? @oceanexplorer saw this one near the marianas trench https://t.co/2kJliLlIK4 pic.twitter.com/CyS9ka118W
— Sarah Keartes (@sarahkeartes) May 31, 2017
So very weird! #nicenostrils #FishesofOZ #RVInvestigator #abysslife @museumsvictoria @NESPmarinehub #facelessfish @AllLittleFishes pic.twitter.com/2hRs3mpdFG
— Fishes of Australia (@FishesAustralia) May 29, 2017
Faceless Cusk isn’t just found in Australia — it also lives in the waters of the Arabian Sea, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Japan, and Hawaii. So if you’re ever out for a deep sea dive in any of those locations, well, good luck.
