A gulper eel (Eurypharynx pelecanoides) surprised scientists with its large mouth during a Nautilus expedition

In September 2018, the research vessel Nautilus captured a strange creature under the water. For several minutes, the balloon-shaped vertebrate “floated” in the water, and then it turned into an elegant snake-figure before politely swimming away.

“It’s such a thing at all? It’s a fish?! Wow!”, – heard on the video footage made by the expedition members.

As they approached, they could see that the “rope” on which the dark “balloon” was balancing in the water was the tail. At the top is a transparent fin. The round cavity is the mouth. A feature of gulper eels is the ability to turn from a small brisk fish-eel into something huge and incomprehensible. The video showing this miraculous transformation of the underwater monster was viewed more than a million times in three days.

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