Opisthoproctidae

brownsnout spookfish

Dolichopteryx longipes

Mirror and lens focus sight

• Brown
• Cross-climate
• Temperate
• Tropical
• Globally widespread
• Marine fish
• Pacific Ocean
• East Asia
• Elongated
• Medium

The brownsnout spookfish or brown-snout spookfish (Dolichopteryx longipes) is a species of barreleye in the family Opisthoproctidae. It and the glasshead barreleye fish are the only vertebrates known to employ a mirror, in addition to a lens, to focus an image in its eyes. This species probably has a worldwide tropical and temperate distribution; in the Atlantic Ocean it is known from Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Pacific Ocean it is known from the California Current region and the South China Sea.