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Cockatoo Squid

Photograph of a transparent polka-dotted squid in the dark ocean.
(Marsh Youngbluth/MAR-ECO, Census of Marine Life)

This transparent cockatoo squid (Leachia sp.), also known as a glass squid, lives in the depths of the ocean and has many adaptations to help it survive there. It retains ammonia solutions inside its body that give it a balloon-like shape and help it float. It has large eyes and pigment-filled cells, or chromatophores, that look like polka dots and serve as camouflage.

See more pictures of bioluminescent animals that light up in the dark ocean water, and other organisms found in the deep ocean by the Census of Marine Life.