{"id":74364,"date":"2025-10-14T17:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T17:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/74364\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T17:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T17:21:11","slug":"faceless-eel-filmed-13000-feet-beneath-the-ocean-off-the-cook-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/74364\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Faceless Eel’ Filmed 13,000 Feet Beneath the Ocean Off the Cook Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"faceless<\/p>\n

Smile! Photo: YouTube\/\/Screenshot<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The ocean is an endlessly fascinating place<\/a>. We\u2019ve only begun to scratch the surface of what\u2019s down there, and there is some serious weirdness. Take, for example, the faceless eel researchers with the E\/V Nautilus\u2019 latest expedition spotted off the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.<\/p>\n

While they were poking around down there in the depths \u2014 around 13,000 feet \u2014 they saw in the distance something odd. Odd is interesting, so they decided they\u2019d better get a closer look. As it turned out, it was something called a Typhlonus nasus, better known as a faceless cusk eel.<\/p>\n

While they certainly do appear to lack a face, looks can be deceiving. \u201cThe bulbous head is probably filled with a light ion fluid, like maybe lithium chloride,\u201d one of the researchers explained. \u201cThat provides a positive buoyancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a peculiar evolutionary trait that makes a lot of sense. It takes less energy to maintain that bulbous, fluid-filled head than it does to manage a gas-filled swim bladder because of the incredible pressures down so deep. As for eyes? Yeah, they\u2019re there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile these deep-sea swimmers\u2019 bulbous faces appear to lack eyes, juveniles have been found to have tiny eyes hidden deep beneath the skin,\u201d the researchers wrote<\/a>. \u201cCapturing these creepy critters on camera hasn\u2019t been easy, but the deep diving capability of ROV Little Hercules means we get to meet these representatives of Cook Islands\u2019 biodiversity for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eyes, at the depths that faceless cusks live at, are almost pointless. The darkness down there is nearly complete, but I suppose evolution hasn\u2019t quite decided to entirely ditch them. As far as a mouth goes, that\u2019s not where you\u2019d expect one, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis little fish looks amazing because the mouth is actually situated at the bottom of the animal so, when you look side-on, you can\u2019t see any eyes, you can\u2019t see any nose or gills or mouth,\u201d expedition team leader Dr. Tim O\u2019Hara told The Guardian<\/a>.. \u201cIt looks like two rear-ends on a fish, really.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Smile! Photo: YouTube\/\/Screenshot The ocean is an endlessly fascinating place. We\u2019ve only begun to scratch the surface of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[52702,52703,85,46,141,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-74364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-cook-islands","9":"tag-faceless-eel","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}