Invertebrates
Glass Octopus
Vitreledonella richardi · also called transparent octopus
Almost entirely invisible except for a pair of tube-shaped eyes and a faint outline of its own digestive tract, a glass octopus drifts silently through open ocean water, rarely seen alive and known mostly from the stomachs of the predators that eat it.
Overview
The glass octopus, Vitreledonella richardi, is a nearly transparent cephalopod native to tropical and subtropical ocean habitat recorded across multiple ocean basins worldwide. Its almost fully see-through body, unusual open-water lifestyle, and near-total absence from direct scientific observation make it one of the most elusive cephalopods found anywhere in the ocean.
An animal built to nearly disappear
With no seafloor or reef to hide against in the open water it calls home, the glass octopus has taken camouflage to its logical extreme, becoming almost completely transparent except for the handful of structures too dense to hide.
Status
Least Concern, though population trends remain largely unknown given the extreme difficulty of studying such a transparent, open-water animal.
Glass Octopus: common questions
Why is the glass octopus transparent?
Being nearly see-through helps this species avoid detection while drifting through open water with no seafloor or reef to hide against, leaving only its eyes, optic nerve, and digestive tract visible to a predator or prey animal nearby.
Does the glass octopus live on the seafloor like other octopuses?
No, this species spends its life drifting through open ocean water rather than crawling across the seafloor, a lifestyle quite different from most other octopus species.
How do scientists study an animal that is so hard to find?
Much of what is known about this species comes from remains recovered from the stomachs of predators such as tuna and seabirds, since living individuals are rarely observed intact given how difficult the species is to locate and collect undamaged.
Why does the glass octopus have such unusual eyes?
This species has unusually elongated, tube-shaped eyes, an adaptation shared by several other transparent deep-sea animals living in the same open-water habitat, likely useful for spotting prey or predators silhouetted against faint light.