Deep-sea blobfish
Blobfish haven’t got looks on their side, having been voted the world’s ugliest creature
The smooth-head blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) wins the prize for having the most hideous face, looking like a grumpy, saggy old man. They are about 30 centimetres long and the most famous in the family Psychrolutidae, which contains around 30 different species. Fish in this family are also known as toadfish and fathead sculpins. It’s hard to believe that blobfish are a fairly normallooking fish in their natural habitat, which is very deep. Here they look similar to tadpoles, with oversized heads and thin tails. For a deep-sea fish, they actually have quite a cute face, a bit like a pufferfish. It’s no wonder they look so sorry for themselves though, as they are accidently caught by humans in deep-sea trawlers and brought to the surface. It’s only then that their soft bodies collapse, and they look like one big wobbly, gruesome blob – that’s where they get their name from. Blobfish don’t do much and are very lazy eaters. They don’t actively hunt, but this is a brilliant tactic as they don’t have the muscle power to help them swim fast. Most fish need a swim bladder to control their buoyancy, but not the blobfish. Their soft bodies give them the natural buoyancy they need to float above the seafloor in the hope that food passes their way. They are a bit of a mystery to science, and not much is known about them – how many there are, how they reproduce and how long they live – as they are in a difficult-to-reach environment and are tricky to find.
“Blobfish are a fairly normal-looking fish in their natural habitat”