Transparent Animals with Glass-like Skin Although found around the world, their existence remains a mystery to scientists.
Astonishing Transparent Creatures from Around the Globe
To evade predators, these transparent animals often hide near rocks that match their skin color.
At first glance, salps resemble long jelly due to their transparent bodies. According to The Guardian, salps usually inhabit cold sea regions. A salp is a marine animal with a floating body shaped like a long drum, approximately 10 cm in length. Salps move by pumping water through their bodies. During this process, they consume plankton suspended in the water. Salps have a rather unusual lifestyle, living either solitary or in groups depending on the cycle. When they live in groups, salps connect their bodies into a long chain to move, eat, and grow together. Not many people know of their existence, but salps are helping us combat climate change. They move around the ocean surface at night, digesting plankton and excreting carbon-rich feces to the ocean floor. This process helps “trap” carbon, preventing it from causing harm, and stabilizes CO2 levels.
Icefish, known as white-blooded fish, have transparent bodies and live in the Antarctic and South America.
This creature resembles a firecracker, living at depths of 400 to 3000m, with a length of about 40mm.
The glass octopus has a body as transparent as crystal and exhibits very mysterious behavior.
The Pacific barreleye fish, also known as the ghost fish, is one of the most mysterious creatures in the ocean.
The sea cucumber has a transparent body, where you can clearly see the digestive tube running along its length.
The term ‘glass squid’ refers to about 60 different squid species, all of which share transparent bodies.
Salpas are a type of gelatinous plankton found primarily in Antarctic waters. They have transparent, tubular bodies.
Transparent Stingray
Fleischmann’s Glass Frog
Jellyfish
Glasswing Butterfly, scientifically known as Greta oto, has transparent wings instead of the vibrant colors seen in other butterflies. These butterflies are distributed across Central and Northern South America. They typically feed on nectar from various flowers in tropical forests and lay eggs on the Cestrum plant. Scientists from the University of California have investigated the reason behind the glasswing butterfly’s transparent wings. It is due to the unique nanostructure of their wing surface, which is randomly arranged without a specific order. As sunlight shines through, most of the rays pass through this structure, resulting in the wings appearing invisible. The glasswing butterfly’s transparent wings help it survive in the wild by making it less visible to predators.
Vampire Snail
Blind Fish
Beauty of Jellyfish
Glass Catfish (Kryptopterus bicirrhis), also known as dragon fish or Indian ghost fish, is commonly found in freshwater lakes in Thailand. This species thrives in murky, slow-flowing rivers or still waters. They adapt to environments with temperatures around 21-26°C. Glass catfish are daytime predators, primarily feeding on water insects and occasionally smaller fish. They are regarded as one of the strangest fish in the world. Their transparent bodies reveal their internal structures due to low pigmentation. When light hits their bodies, they exhibit a metallic sheen and turn milky after death. Mature glass catfish can grow up to 8 cm in length.
White Shrimp
The golden tortoise beetle can change its shape depending on the environment by altering its circulatory system. It can switch colors from yellow to red with black spots. When isolated from their natural habitat, golden tortoise beetles quickly lose their original color and turn muddy brown. This ability is due to its shell being covered with a liquid film formed from dew drops on leaves. This liquid layer creates an illusion that appears yellow to the human eye.
