Cyclops Fish Pulled Out of Norwegian Sea; What Kind of Mutation Does It Show?

A few weeks ago, Science Times reported a viral photo on social media of a dragon-like fish pulled off the coast of the Norwegian Sea by the Russian fisherman Roman Fedortsov. The 39-year-old fisherman has become a viral sensation online because of the photos of bizarre sea creatures he captured while fishing in the Norwegian and Barents Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and the Greenland Sea.

Now, he is going viral again because of a flatfish that looks like it only has one eye on the head. According to Daily Star, the sea creature has now been dubbed the cyclops fish, which Fedortsove thinks is beautiful despite its unique face.

(Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Fisherman Klaus Raack, who is now 60 and started fishing when he was 15, holds a plaice he pulled from his net moments before on the deck of the boat he runs with his 30-year veteran fishing partner Reinhard Lay on August 13, 2010 in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Poel Island, Germany. Lay and Raack are both semi-retired but continue to fish from their wooden boat for herring, cod, plaice, flounder and sea trout.

Terrifying Yet Beautiful Cyclops Fish From the Sea

Fedortsov reveals in his most recent post that he is in the waters around Bear Island, in the Barents Sea off Norway. But a few days before that, he shared a short video clip of him showing the bizarre-looking creature he recently caught.

In his post on Instagram, the Russian fisherman showed a fish branded a cyclops by some of his followers because it seemed to only have one eye on its head, which is located in the middle. But when Fedortsov turned the fish, it revealed the second eye was on the right side of its body.

This is part of the metamorphosis of the fish that is known as eye migration, a common feature that flatfish species share. One of the fisherman's followers even commented that the fish in the video appears to be a halibut that are symmetrical at birth with one eye on each side of the head, but one gradually moves over to the side to look up while it lays down on the sand.

Eye Migration Among Flatfish Explained

Some of the most amazing and cool phenomena happen in nature. One of these events is the process of metamorphosis of any creature. This is when the body of an animal undergoes a significant change in its shape as they grow.

The most common example of metamorphosis that most people see is the caterpillar turning into a butterfly. But in the sea, there is something more amazing than that.

Flatfish, such as flounders, have a unique metamorphosis in which their eye placement changes, according to an article on a kid's website, Be Naturally Curious. When they were young, they looked like any typical fish with an upright body and an eye for each side of their head.

But as they grow older, their body changes a lot that they start swimming flat on the ocean floor to hide and change their eye placement, so they are now on one side and at the top of their head.

Scientists explained that the eye is pushed to the other side of the head by growing bones and muscles on the opposite side to where the eye is moving, hence bringing the two eyes on only one side.

Below is a time-lapse video of an eye migration of flounder:

RELATED ARTICLE: Bizarre Dragon-Like Fish Pulled From the Depths of the Norwegian Sea Identified

Check out more news and information on Fish in Science Times.