I'd like to start today's post with a video:
So, the bizarre creature you just witnessed is commonly known as the headless chicken fish or the headless chicken monster. It also comes by as the Spanish dancer.
Dunno, to me it looks like more a swimming butthole 🙃😂
Scientifically known as Enypniastes eximia, it's a deep-sea sea cucumber found all over the globe in depths ranging from 500 to 5,000 meters.
The video above is a bit deceiving and gives it a much larger appearance than what it actually is. In reality individuals are just 11 to 25 centimeters (4.3 to 9.8 in) long.
Their body is gelatinous, transparent and bioluminescent. The reason behind the bioluminescence is actually quite interesting:
The anti-predatory role of bioluminescence in this species is apparently a ‘burglar alarm’ strategy in the dark, near-bottom habitat, physical contact by a predator elicits light production which reveals the presence of the attacker to its own visually-cued predators. source
Of course, the species is mostly notable for its distinctive fin like structures, helping it to swim and escape threats. Hence it's common name. It does look a bit like a headless butthole chicken 🐔
Anyways I can keep going on with more boring semantics but you can do a quick Google if you would like to learn more. As always, my purpose with these posts is to introduce you to some crazy creature you have never heard of and not to write a boring wiki like article 😂
So I'll close with some more vids:
