Terrifying photos show “ultra black fish” camouflaged in the darkest parts of the ocean

Scientists have now discovered the secrets behind the magical disappearance of some of the fish that lurk in some of the deepest parts of the ocean. These “ultra black” fish are among the darkest creatures ever found, evolving to camouflage themselves against predators, even without sunlight.

According to a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, certain alien species of fish have adapted the shape, size, and pigment of their skin to absorb 99.5% of the light hitting them, making them approximately 20 times darker than everyday black objects. According to the researchers, these fish mark the first time that ultra black has been discovered in aquatic animals.

Scientists from Duke University and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History studied 16 species of ultra-black fish, including tusk, Pacific black dragon, monkfish, and black swallow, in the waters of Monterey Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The fish spanned seven different orders, which are large groupings that have a shared evolutionary history, to determine that the modifications occurred independently of each other.

Some of the fish inhabit parts of the ocean at a depth of up to three miles, where very little sunlight can reach. At these depths, bioluminescence, the light emitted by living organisms, is the only light source.

With organisms lighting up the water to hunt, the ultra-black fish adapted to hide in plain sight. Camouflage is probably the difference between eating and being eaten, the scientists said in a press release.

“In the deep, open ocean, there is nowhere to hide and many hungry predators,” co-author and zoologist Karen Osborn of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington told Reuters. “An animal’s only option is to blend into the background.”

Scientists discovered that, compared to normal black fish, ultra-black fish have uniquely shaped melanosomes, the tiny pigment packs with their skin cells. The skin of these fish is one of the blackest materials ever discovered; they often appear only as silhouettes, even in bright light.

“The darkest species they found, a small monkfish not much longer than a golf tee, absorbs so much light that almost none (0.04%) bounces off the eye,” the researchers said.

The findings rank fish among the blackest animals known in the world: ultrablack butterflies reflect 0.06% to 0.5% of light, and blackest birds have a reflectance of 0.05% at 0.31%.

Photographing the fish was extremely difficult for the researchers.

“It didn’t matter how you set up the camera or the lighting, they just absorbed all the light,” said zoologist researcher Karen Osborn of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

The researchers say the discovery could lead to the development of light-catching materials with practical applications on land, from solar panels to telescopes, such as Vantablack, the ultra-black coating designed for defense and space applications.