Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo15amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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A small, silvery, eel-like li.sli which has been found in all the oceans at depths ranging from a little less than a mile to two and one-half miles. It has a row of luminous pores rimning the length of the body; and in the blackness of the profound depths it must appear like a miniature long dark boat with gleaming portholes. Its greenish, glittering eyes are perched on the ends of slender, hornlike tentacles — a feature which has suggested its scientific name, Slylophthalmus paradoxus group has been arranged so as to have these luminous organs flash intermit- tently. Furthermore, the installation is arranged so that one may A'iew the fishes for a few seconds in full light, as if in a synoptic exhibit, and then see them, when the light goes out, as they are supposed to appear in the darkness of the profound depths, lit up only by their own phosphorescent organs. Near the top of the group is seen a fish which lives on the border line be- tween the region of dimness and total darkness. Many of the fishes living in this region are not of a uniform sombre hue, but are brilliantly colored. Nco- scopelus is one of these. The body is " one dazzling sheen of purple and silver and burnished gold, amid which is a sparkling constellation of luminous or- gans" (Alcock). The glowing fish in the center is Baraihronus diaphanus, a small fish known from a single specimen, which
Text Appearing After Image:
In this deep-sea fish the head glows with a soft pale light, while the body is quite dark, being covered with large opaque scales. The species (Opisthoproctus soleatus), is known by only two examples dredged from a depth of two and a half miles; one off the northern, and the other off the western coast of Africa (This specimen is not shown in the general photograph of the group, having been cut out for con- venience in reproduction. It is situated in the group below the bottom fish on the right hand side) 252

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