Some animals can change the color of their bodies to match the color of their surroundings. This special skill allows them to blend in with the environment to either have a better chance against predators or to ambush prey. For the same purpose, nature has given some of its creatures another ability—to be almost fully invisible.
Here are 15 crazy animals with transparent bodies.
1. Juvenile Cowfish (Lactoria fornasini)
Cowfish can be found swimming happily in coral reefs. They move quite slowly, which would normally hinder their survival rate. But they’ve developed a cool defense mechanism: their juvenile bodies are translucent until they reach adulthood, and thereafter, they become light yellow with many bluish-white spots.
2. Portuguese Man O’ War (Physalia physalis)
This strange marine organism looks like a jellyfish. When the animal is in danger, its long tentacles can squirt poison. And the poison isn’t your regular “ouchie,” as this blob is deadly to both marine life and humans.
3. Ghost Shrimp (Palaemon paludosus)
The ghost shrimp live in the freshwater of the southeastern United States, mainly in lakes, and feed on plankton. Aside from that, they just look really nifty.
4. Salps, aka “Sea Grapes”
These sea creatures are not only translucent, but they also have the power of photoluminescence. Their bodies have a gelatinous structure, which earned them the moniker “sea grapes.” Salps usually move in colonies that form long chains, but they can also detach and go solo.
5. Glass Frogs (Centrolenidae family)
The back of these amphibians is translucent with a light-green tint. Their abdomen and chest are almost as clear as water, allowing you to see their internal organs, including the heart, liver, and gastrointestinal tract.
6. Deep Sea Amphipod (Cystisoma neptuni)
These tiny crustaceans have a translucent body that protects them from predators. It’s usually extremely difficult to even notice them without a camera flash.
7. Phylliroe Sea Slug (Phylliroe bucephalum)
Phylliroes live and hunt in oceanic waters. It’s hard to imagine a sea slug as a predator, but it is one nonetheless. It feeds exclusively on ctenophores.
8. Crocodile Icefish (Channichthyidae family)
As the name suggests, Icefish live in freezing Antarctic waters. They have a very weak, ossified skeleton and white gills, but their blood is translucent, just like their body.
9. Immortal Jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii)
The immortal jellyfish lives in the Mediterranean and the seas near Japan. Unlike its relatives, it has an unlimited lifespan.
10. Glass Eel (Anguilla anguilla)
Glass eels are the second stage of European eels’ development, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they live in the rivers of, well, Europe. Adult specimens can reach a length of 60-80 cm, but the “glass eels” are quite tiny. In captivity, European eels can live 80-150 years.
11. Golden Tortoise Beetle (Charidotella sexpunctata)
It has a transparent shell that sparkles like gold under the sun. The color of its body changes depending on the stage of its life cycle, and when the beetle is stressed, the golden color changes to red.
12. Angelfish (Corolla spectabilis)
These sea butterflies have transparent bodies with flaps resembling “wings.” They live in cold Arctic waters, and you’d never know they were in the water if they didn’t use their bioluminescence to attract small critters.
13. Glass Squid (Teuthowenia pellucida)
The body of this mini-Kraken is almost completely transparent, except for the large eyes and internal organs. It has a cute blue shell on top that sort of looks like a “dunce hat.” The glass squid grows to a maximum of 20 cm.
“Glass squid” in the species Taonius videotaped by MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle Ventana (dive V3755) at a depth of 600 meters in Monterey Bay.
14. Domed Land Snail (Zospeum tholussum)
These tiny creatures, about 3 mm in size, have a completely transparent shell and are fully blind. They were first found in caves of Croatia at a depth of 740-1400 m.
15. Glass Octopus (Vitreledonella richardi)
The glass squid has a transparent, jelly-like body that can grow up to 45 cm long. The glass squid inhabits tropical waters and frequently becomes a meal for northern bottlenose whales. You can’t win them all, even with the power of invisibility.
