A Very Strange Thing: the Gulper

The Gulper, Eurypharynx pelecanoides, is one of the most bizarre denizens of our planet. Gulpers are fish of the deep ocean abyss, living at astonishing depths--from 5,000 to 9,000 feet beneath the surface! Swimming gently about in total darkness, Gulpers cannot see their prey--or anything that does not bear its own light. As I have sketched here, Gulpers have very small eyes. I've actually enlarged the eye by a factor of about 6, just to show on the monitor screen that Gulpers DO have eyes. How do they find their prey? They put out bait that glows. Each Gulper bears a small, red lantern at the tip of its tail. Glowing with strange biochemical luminescence, the tail-tip serves as a lure for deep-sea plankton and other small creatures in the benthic blackness. Gulpers are mostly mouth. Since creatures of any kind--even plankton--are very rare in the depths, Gulpers must be able to sweep in food from as wide an area as possible. The jaws open to an amazing gape. These beautiful nightmares, however, are small, about two feet long. Uncialle loves them!

Who knows what undiscovered creatures still lurk in the black depths of the sea?