Mystery vision of the four-eyed spookfish is finally solved

A 'four-eyed' deep sea fish is the first to be discovered which uses powerful mirrors for eyes instead of lenses, say scientists.

The spookfish, which lives at a depth of 3,280ft (1,000m), has been known to naturalists for 120 years, but the secret of its penetrating vision in the abyss had remained a mystery because no live specimen had been captured.

Now, Professor Hans-Joachim Wagner, from Tuebingen University in Germany, has caught one off the Pacific island of Tonga. His research team used flash photography to confirm the fish's upward and downward gazes.