This strange fish is indeed scary in shape with a physique like a pitch black ball, sharp teeth and a kind of antenna on top of its head. He was again stranded in the territorial waters of California and confused.
Recently, the carcass of a fish nicknamed the footballfish washed up in the waters of San Diego. Scientists from the University of San Diego identified it as a Pacific Footballfish, a creature that inhabits the deep ocean.
This fish is so rare that in the century since its discovery, only 31 specimens have been found. It is one of 300 species of the anglerfish family, a type of deep sea fish from a depth of 1,000 meters below sea level.
What's confusing is that this is the third time this year that 3 footballfish have washed up in California waters. This event is very rare.
As quoted by us from the Guardian, at this time experts do not know exactly why the fish has been stranded several times. But on the other hand, scientists can study this fish in more depth.
"The fact that some have been stranded this year is probably our lucky stroke of luck. We don't know much even about the very basics of their lives," said Ben Frable of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
He ruled out the possibility of a catastrophe or something behind it. If that were the case, there would be more and more weird footballfish heading ashore.
One of the interesting parts of his body is that this fish, which is female, has antennae which are illicium, natural lights. This antenna extends to the front of the fish's mouth and has spheres at the end of the antenna that can glow because it contains phosphorescens.
This natural light is a trap to attract prey to it. After that, the prey is mercilessly devoured.
One of the research focuses is the fish's stomach to find out what its prey is in the deep ocean. Most of their stomachs were empty, but it's not clear whether that was the cause of death or if they didn't eat much.
"There's a lot we don't know about this species in general. This strange fish was really the type we wanted to display so that people could see it and learn about the world around this strange creature," said William Ludt, an expert from the Natural History Museum.