The fangs of the dragon fish are so transparent that they blend perfectly into the darkness of the deep sea. Now, researchers know. Velasco Hogan et al. /matter)

You might expect something called the Arowana to be the fearsome Leviathan of the deep - if you happen to be a thumb-sized sea creature, the Arowana is called prey.

Arowanas (genus Aristotle) ??are one-week-old (only 6 inches, or 15 centimeters long), eel-like predators with huge jaws, long fangs, and the ability to yawn 120 degrees . These gaping-mouthed monitor lizards can devour more than half of their prey, but their hunting success also depends on another almost supernatural adaptation: invisibility. While a dragonfly's body emits a faint bioluminescence, their teeth are almost completely transparent, blending into the surrounding dark depths without giving away potential prey, until the fangs crunch.

So, how does the magic of this underwater dragon work? In a new study published today (June 5) in the journal Materials, scientists took a closer look at the transparent teeth of an arowana under an electron microscope and discovered this. The answer, the researchers found, is that a series of particle-sized nanocrystals on each side of the tooth enamel prevent the dragonfly's own bioluminescence from reflecting off the open jaw.

, this adaptation may give the dragonfly the advantage it needs to grow.

"Most deep-sea animals have unique adaptations, but the fact that dragonflies have transparent teeth confuses us because this feature is usually found in larger species discovery," senior study author Mark Meyers, a materials scientist at UC San Diego, said in a statement that the dragonfish's teeth were large in proportion to its mouth, like the monster from the movie "Alien." , if these teeth can be seen, the prey will immediately avoid it. We speculate that the teeth are transparent because it aids predators.

Could the dragonfly's invisibility crystal spell be channeled to create a transparent material that humans can use (say, a real-life invisibility cloak)? Maybe. That's exactly what Meyers and his colleagues set out to find in their next study, according to the statement. In the photo: The weirdest animals in the world in pictures: the luminous creatures of the top ten unknown phenomena in the deep

, originally published in the magazine "Life Science"