Deep Sea Squid

This young Gonatus squid is still translucent, making it tricky for predators to spot it. As these muscular animals grow, it becomes increasingly costly to keep all that muscle transparent so change their body color from white to red. Like many other cephalopods, chromatophores (cells that contain color pigments) in their skin can change the color of the animal in the blink of an eye. In this image you can see groups of chromatophores on the edges of the fins and speckled along the mantle. See more images of mid-water creatures in our slideshow.