A blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) may be the ugliest animal you’ve ever seen. In fact, the title is official: in a 2013 competition held by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, the blobfish was actually voted as the World’s Ugliest Animal. The blobfish has small eyes, a gelatinous appearance, a largemouth, and a relatively small body and fins to go with it.
If being named “blobfish” wasn’t bad enough, the rest of its family gets little love either. The blobfish is a member of the Psychrolutidae family of fishes, commonly known as “fathead sculpins” due to the size of their heads and generally floppy appearances.
As it turns out, the blobfish has good reason to be so ugly: its habitat shaped it that way. Blobfish live in deep water just off the ocean floor around southeastern Australia and Tasmania. At depths of 2,000 feet or greater, the water pressure is crushing, more than 60 times that of water at the surface.
Fortunately for the blobfish, they’ve adopted a way of living that allows them to survive just fine as a blob in the deep ocean. They tend to float along, just off the bottom of the sea, eating whatever happens to float right in front of them and is small enough to fit into their mouths.
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