Blobfish: The World's Ugliest Animal, With a Surprising Survival Secret
The blobfish gained widespread infamy after a specimen was photographed in 2003. However very little is known about these deep-sea creatures.
With its droopy, slimy appearance, the fish was voted the world's ugliest animal in a poll by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society.
Blobfish live in the ocean’s deepest regions, between 600 and 1,200 meters, where pressure is over 100 times greater than at sea level. To survive, they have a squishy body, soft bones, and minimal muscle.
When a blobfish is removed from water, decompression causes its body to expand and its skin to loosen, resulting in the distorted features and prominent nose it's known for.
At depth, blobfish resemble ordinary fish with bulbous heads, black eyes, and feathery pectoral fins. Their pinkish-grey bodies taper to a tail, similar to a tadpole. They usually grow under 30 cm long and weigh less than 2 kg.
Females tend to group together and lay eggs in close-together nests, all on rocky plateaus in the ocean depths, presumably for protection.