A team of scientists has shared mesmerizing footage from a month-long exploration into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Among the scenes is a transparent-headed fish so alien that it looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.
The species in question is the elusive barreleye fish – a type of spookfish that, until now, had never been seen photographed in the wild.
An absolute rarity of nature, it has a completely transparent, fluid-filled dome on its head protecting its eyes, which, to the layman eye, makes it seem like you’re looking at the fish’s brain.
ABOVE: The alien-esque spookfish can be seen at 2:06-2:08
Marine biologists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, led by Dr Aaron Micallef, spotted the ghostly being at a depth of 2,329ft (710m) in a region of the Atlantic Ocean known as the Doldrums Fracture Zone.
This is an extensive system of cracks and fault lines on the seafloor (13,000ft / 4,000m) roughly the size of Lake Michigan, around 800 miles off the northeast coast of Brazil.
Tectonic plates violently grind past one another, sculpting dramatic seascapes like sedimented basins that can house chemically altered waters responsible for unique deep-sea ecosystems.
ABOVE: See the fascinating deep ocean vents discovered by the researchers
"This discovery shows why exploration still matters," Dr Micallef told the Schmidt Ocean Institute. "Even in the Atlantic Ocean, where plate boundaries have been studied for decades, there are still places where the first close look can reveal something entirely new."
Dr Micallef’s crew, who operated a remote-controlled submarine called SuBastian from the surface, made more otherworldly discoveries.
Thanks to Substian’s 4K camera, they also bagged footage of a pair of beautiful and also never-before-seen thermal vents spewing life-creating materials into the ocean.
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