Poor old blobfish. Droopy, gelatinous and with a large bulbous nose, the blobfish rose to fame when it was voted the ugliest fish in the world in a public poll - and is on every weirdest animals in the world list as well as - obviously - our weirdest fish in the world list.
Why is the blobfish so ugly?
However, it’s worth noting that specimens of this fish species suffer from decompression damage when brought to the surface.
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At depth, the pressure can be more than 100 times what we experience on the surface, and when an animal is brought up this can mean its appearance can change. In the case of the blobfish, the change in pressure causes it to expand and its features to distort, turning it into the ugly blob we know and love.
On the ocean floor, they just look like fish (though still no prize-winning beauty) -so perhaps we’ve all been judging it too harshly.
Top image: © Kerryn Parkinson, Australian Museum
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