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Antarctic icefishes have translucent bodies and blood

The blood of an icefish isn’t red. Instead, its blood runs white.

Kristin O’Brien is a biologist at University of Alaska Fairbanks, who studies an unusual family of fishes called icefishes. They’re found only in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. They are unique because they are the only vertebrates in the world that lack the oxygen-binding protein hemoglobin, which is the protein that transports oxygen throughout the body and gives blood its red color. In other words, the blood of an icefish isn’t red. Instead, its blood runs a cloudy white. “I think these animals are among the most fascinating creatures on Earth,” Dr. O’Brien said

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

(via blamoscience)