Living in the deep sea may be why the anglerfish is so weird looking Solvin Zankl/Alamy
With eels that have heads shaped like tweezers and anglerfish that look like swimming light bulbs, the deep sea is host to a strange menagerie of fish body forms. The alien conditions at the bottom of the ocean may be the cause, making the dark depths a hotspot of body-shape evolution.
Previous research has shown that fish metabolism, muscle enzymes and swimming strength decreased with depth, says Christopher Martinez at the University of California, Davis. But there has been no comprehensive comparison of…
