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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →A 2020 study found that 16 of 18 sampled deep-sea fish species reflected less than 0.5% of light at 480 nanometers. That is the basis for saying their skin can absorb at least 99.5% at that wavelength—not a claim that every fish absorbs exactly that amount across all colors of light. The researchers traced the effect to a tightly packed layer of melanin-containing structures in the skin.
What “99.5% of light” means
The percentage describes reflectance: the share of incoming light that bounces back from the skin. The study defined ultra-black coloration as an average reflectance below 0.5% across the visible spectrum. At 480 nanometers, 16 of the 18 sampled species were below that threshold. Absorbing at least 99.5% is the complement of that reflectance figure at the specified wavelength; it is not a universal measurement for every wavelength or every fish.
That 480-nanometer wavelength is near the peak of deep-sea ambient sunlight and much oceanic bioluminescence. Across the visible spectrum, the sampled species’ mean reflectance ranged from 0.051% to 1.04%, and 14 species had broadband average reflectance below 0.5%.
Which fish were measured?
Alexander L. Davis and colleagues measured 39 specimens representing 18 species collected on research cruises in Monterey Bay, California, and the Gulf of Mexico. The 16 species below 0.5% reflectance at 480 nanometers came from seven distantly related orders, suggesting the trait occurs across multiple branches of deep-sea fish rather than belonging to one exceptional species. The primary paper, “Ultra-black Camouflage in Deep-Sea Fishes,” appeared in Current Biology on September 7, 2020; the article and methods are available through the NOAA Central Library archive.
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The lowest measurement belonged to an unidentified Oneirodes species: 0.044% reflectance at 480 nanometers and 0.051% average reflectance from 350 to 700 nanometers. The Pacific blackdragon (Idiacanthus antrostomus) was identified as the second-blackest fish examined, not the fish responsible for the study’s lowest reading.
How the skin absorbs so little light back out
Microscopy revealed an unusual arrangement in nine ultra-black species: a continuous, densely packed layer of melanosomes near the outer part of the dermis. Melanosomes are organelles that contain melanin, the pigment that absorbs light. Unlike the separated pigment cells seen in many other dark fish, this layer has few or no unpigmented gaps through which light could escape.
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The researchers’ optical modelling suggests that the size and shape of melanosomes scatter light sideways within the layer. That increases the distance light travels through melanin before it can leave the skin. In the model, melanosomes 600 to 800 nanometers in size, with aspect ratios between 1.5 and 3.0, produced the lowest reflectance; all but two of the ultra-black species fell within that range. The modelling tested 169 combinations of melanosome size and aspect ratio.
As Alexander Davis explained to Smithsonian Ocean, the idea is that light is scattered sideways and encounters more melanin instead of simply returning toward its source. The mechanism is distinct from other deep-sea strategies discussed in the paper, including transparency, mirrored surfaces, and counterillumination. For comparison, the paper reports that black paper reflects about 10% of incident light, far more than the lowest fish measurement.
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Why ultra-black skin may help in the deep sea
Below about 200 meters, little sunlight remains, but bioluminescent organisms still produce light. A flash can expose an animal to a predator or alert prey. The study’s proposed explanation is that ultra-black skin makes a fish harder to see when illuminated by these brief sources.
- Avoiding detection: Low reflectance could reduce the light returned by a predator’s searchlight or by prey’s defensive flash.
- Concealing a lure: In a fish that uses a glowing lure, dark skin may help keep the rest of its body from being revealed by the lure’s light.
- Hiding a luminous meal: Dark skin may help mask light from recently eaten bioluminescent prey in a predator’s gut.
These are proposed functions, not proof that every ultra-black species uses its pigmentation in all three ways. A Smithsonian Ocean explainer describes these possible roles, while the primary study frames low reflectance as camouflage adapted to the deep-sea light environment.
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What the sighting-distance model does—and does not—show
A computational model predicted that a fish with 0.05% reflectance would have a sixfold lower relative sighting distance than one with 2% reflectance. This is a comparison of predicted relative distances, not a measured distance in meters and not a field observation. The authors used relative values because they lacked precise information about the light source’s intensity and beam shape.
The study demonstrates an exceptionally low-reflectance skin structure and offers a plausible optical mechanism and camouflage benefit. It does not establish that all deep-sea fish are ultra-black, that the proposed benefits have been measured in the wild, or that the fish skin is a ready-made commercial coating. The authors note that the biological mechanism could inspire synthetic ultra-black materials, which remains a future research possibility.
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