The ocean will never stop surprising us. We’ve only uncovered the tiniest fraction of her depths, so as far as recognizing every living creature under the surface goes, we still have a long ride ahead of us. The latest reminder of this came with this week’s discovery of an all-black fish that has legs. Yes, legs. On a fish.
On vacation with his family in New Zealand, Glenys Howse noticed something strange caught up in all the fishing bait and kelp on his boat. When that strange something turned out to be a black fish with legs, he tried to save it and deliver the weird fish to researchers. The fish died on the boat, however, leaving scientists with just a few answers about the rare species. First, they determined the “legs” are actually fins on the sides of the abdomen that can sweep along the ocean floor as if the fish is walking. They eventually identified this fish as a species of striated frogfish, or anglerfish as it’s commonly known.
As it turns out, the most odd characteristic of the animal isn’t its apparent limbs, rather the solid black pigment. Frogfish are known for their ability to camouflage themselves agains the ocean floor, but always with some trace of a pattern in the animal’s skin. “It is very unusual in that it is completely black, with the only a trace of a pattern on the shaft of the Illicium (stem of the lure),” the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa wrote on Facebook. “There are competing theories around this: is it one highly variable species, or several?”
Several species of this creepy little thing? Hopefully they just don’t get any bigger.
