Spilled Guts

“We see a lot of strange animals offshore at night. Prior to seeing this creature (Lamprogrammus sp.), I could have never dreamed up a creature that had spilled its own guts by design. That’s because I don’t believe it had ever been photographed alive before this, at least I couldn’t find any photos after some strange Google searches. But yet there it was in front of me, sporting a mohawk of fin spines as if that was normal for a fish. This, and many cusk eels, live a reverse version of the ugly duckling story: they start out life as extravagant larvae near the surface and end up in the inky depths as medium-sized, dark eels.” –Jeffrey Milisen