Wildlife photographer and scientist Danté Fenolio has a new book full of creatures that have evolved to thrive deep inside of caves, at the bottoms of oceans and underground. It’s called Life in the Dark and it comes out today. These are just a handful of the hundreds of the images in the book.
Some of the species in this book have never been photographed. Some (like the larval octopus at the top of this post) have never been described by science.
Günther’s Boatfish is a dragonfish with luminous spots called photophores along the length of its body.
The Golden Harlequin Toad is now extinct in nature thanks to the plague of amphibian chitrid fungus.
This bioluminescent mushroom is an undescribed species.
Waterfall Climbing Loach use their strong fins to crawl out of water and eat bacteria growing on rocks. This specimen was found in a cave in Thailand.
This cave house centipede was found in a Chinese cave.
The Square Pink Anthias lives in deep canyons near reefs called “drop-offs.” Weirdly, its bright colors aren’t visible at these depths - but its patterns are.
The candiru is a South American catfish that enter the dark gill chambers of other fish and eat their gills. They will haunt my nightmares forever.
Here’s a photo of Fenolio holding a giant Japanese Spider Crab (credit W. W. Lamar).
This pacific red octopus gave me three distinct, fancy poses. He was camouflaged until he saw me whip out my phone. I am convinced he wanted his picture taken looking his best!
