Transparent Mollusks

The world is a strange place filled with astonishing and bizarre animals. Among the strangest creatures are those which are transparent*—animals which barely seem to be there because the tissues that make up their bodies are permeable to light.  There are transparent catfish, transparent insects, transparent crustaceans, and even transparent frogs (to say nothing of cnidarians, the majority of which are transparent!).  Today’s post however concerns transparent mollusks.  In addition to having transparent bodies some of these incredible invertebrates have transparent shells, can invert their bodies, or can glow.  Check them out:

The Glass Squid (Teuthowenia pellucida)

The Glass Squid (Teuthowenia pellucida) also known as the googly-eyed glass squid lives throughout the oceans of the southern hemisphere.  The creature is about 200 millimeters (8 inches) long and has light organs on its eyes.  Although transparent it has a bluish cast and it possesses the ability to roll into a ball or to inflate itself.  These tricks do not always work and the little squid is frequently eaten by weird deep-sea fish and sharks.

Zospeum tholussum

Recently discovered in a huge cave system in Croatia,  Zospeum tholussum, is a small delicate snail with a transparent shell.

This pterotracheid heteropod mollusk is a member of the Carinaria genus.  It lives in the open ocean and flaps through the water scooping up plankton in a modified snail foot. Just as its snail foot has changed into a swimming/harvesting organ, the mollusk’s shell has shrunk into near nonexistence.

Above is an unknown pteropod (possibly of the genus Corolla), which was photographed near Oceanographer Canyon off the coast of Massachusetts.

Vitrelladonella Richardi

Vitrelladonella Richardi is a deepwater pelagic octopus found in tropical and subtropical waters around the world.  The little octopus only measures 80cm (2.6ft) in length.  Like many of these almost invisible mollusks very little is known about how it lives, but it is certainly beautiful in a very alien and otherworldly way.

*The author of this opinion piece is opaque.  His opinion may not represent the larger community of organisms.