Bristlemouths – More Than You Can Imagine

Faroe Islands artist Astrid Andreasen created this stamp, one of a series of nature stamps she has designed for the Faroe Islands.

THERE ARE LOTS OF FISH IN THE SEA, the saying goes, and it turns out that most of them are bristlemouths, a fish you probably never heard of.

TRILLIONS OF THEM   It’s a small fish “of the middle depths that glows in the dark and can open its mouth extraordinarily wide, baring needle-like fangs – is the most numerous vertebrae on earth,” says science writer William J. Broad in a recent article in the New York Times Science Section.

Scientists have come to realize there are trillions of them in the ocean depths, he writes in An Ocean Mystery in the Trillions.

AND MORE SURPRISES IN THE DEEP OCEAN   In another recent article, Mr. Broad writes about other findings in the deep ocean, in Dark Region of Ocean May Shed Light on Climate Change and Other Issues.