A deep sea dragon fish has ultra black skin capable of absorbing bioluminescent light. It also has great teeth.
Karen Osborn, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Goths know that black is great. Some scary-looking fish that swim in the deep ocean also know this. Researchers are uncovering the deep, dark secrets of black fish that have developed special skin characteristics to help them hide from predators that use bioluminescence to hunt.
The team of researchers, including lead author Alexander Davis, a biology PhD student at Duke University, published a study on the ultrablack fish in the journal Current Biology (PDF) on Thursday. They identified at least 16 species of fish that inhabit the depths of the sea with skin that absorbs more than 99.5% of light. It is the ultimate camouflage for the ink depths of the ocean.
As the names suggest, dragonfish and common tuskfish are not the cutest creatures in the sea. It may seem like a nightmare to apprehensive humans, but they are of great interest to scientists who are looking for ways to develop new ultra-black materials.
Vantablack It is the most famous of the ultra black coatings. It was designed for defense and space sector applications, but has also been featured in architecture and art. It is not the only one of its kind. MIT announced a new “black more black” material in 2019
The ocean research team used a spectrometer to measure light reflecting off the skin of fish caught from Monterey Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. These deep-sea dwellers live up to a mile below the ocean’s surface.
“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,” Duke University said in a statement Thursday.
The scientists discovered differences between black fish and ultra-black fish by focusing on melanosomes, structures within cells that contain the pigment melanin.
“Other cold-blooded animals with normal black fur have small, pearl-shaped melanosomes, while ultrablacks are larger, more tick-tock,” Duke said. Ultra black structures are also more compact. Computer modeling revealed that these melanosomes “have the optimal geometry to swallow light.”
This ultra black fish is an Anoplogaster cornuta. It was thrown back into the ocean after being studied.
Karen Osborn, Smithsonian
According to study co-author Karen Osborn, “mimicking this strategy could help engineers develop less expensive, flexible, and more durable ultra-black materials for use in optical technology, such as telescopes and cameras, and for camouflage.” Osborn is a research zoologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
The study of fish skin adds to our understanding of how these unusual animals function in their dark worlds. A 2019 study found some deep-sea fish see color.
The ultra black fish presented some challenges for scientists when it came to photos. “It didn’t matter how you set up the camera or the lighting, they just absorbed all the light,” Osborn said.
Fortunately for his nightmares, Osborn captured staggeringly toothy views of an ultra deep Black Sea dragonfish and an Anoplogaster cornuta. Be sure to listen to some Bauhaus music and look deep into his milky eyes.
