Okay, before I share today’s find with you, let me say that, when I first came across this, I was astonished and swore it was some sort of photoshopped trick. However, the Pacific barreleye fish is real and it really has a transparent head. Here is how National Geographic describes the beast:

With a head like a fighter-plane cockpit, a Pacific barreleye fish shows off its highly sensitive, barrel-like eyes–topped by green, orblike lenses–in a picture released today [in 2009] but taken in 2004.

The fish, discovered alive in the deep water off California’s central coast by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), is the first specimen of its kind to be found with its soft transparent dome intact.

The 6-inch (15-centimeter) barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) had been known since 1939–but only from mangled specimens dragged to the surface by nets.

And now for the photos (and a video); check it out:

At the risk of sounding like an immature teenager… this is so cool!

[via National Geographic]