The best way to hide in the deep sea: Ultra-black skin

Deep-sea animals have a variety of remarkable adaptations to help them hide in the midnight zone. But the fascinating fishes featured in this video have the best strategy to hide from predators and prey in this dark expanse: skin shades among the blackest of blacks known. While there is no sunlight deep in the ocean, more than 75 percent of deep-sea life can produce light, a process called bioluminescence. When a single photon can blow your cover, ultra-black camouflage keeps these fishes hidden in the wide open darkness and also enables them to sneak up on unsuspecting shrimp or fish for a tasty meal. Ultra-black fishes have unique structures in their skin that very efficiently trap and absorb light. Melanin—the same pigment found in human skin—is densely packed into super thin layers on the outermost surface of their skin. While most light photons are immediately absorbed, the specific shape, size, and configuration of these melanin layers scatters any missed photons into neighboring skin cells, wher