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Flounder

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When a flounder (Rhombosolea plebeia) hatches from its egg, its eyes are located on both sides of its body, like most fish. But when it reaches five millimetres long, one eye starts to migrate across its body. Over several weeks, the juvenile’s growing muscles and bones push the eye over the top of its head until it ends up next to the other eye, giving it the distinctive face of an adult flounder—like a creature in a Picasso painting. At the same time, the young flounder settle on the sea floor, where those lopsided eyes give it the perfect view of ocean and sky. These two centimetre-long flounder had probably settled on the sand recently when the Robinsons scooped them up.
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue: 172 November December 2021.
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-animals-next-door/
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2021.
Rights managed image. No Reproduction without prior written permission.
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Richard Robinson © 2021. No Reproduction without prior written permission.
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When a flounder (Rhombosolea plebeia) hatches from its egg, its eyes are located on both sides of its body, like most fish. But when it reaches five millimetres long, one eye starts to migrate across its body. Over several weeks, the juvenile’s growing muscles and bones push the eye over the top of its head until it ends up next to the other eye, giving it the distinctive face of an adult flounder—like a creature in a Picasso painting. At the same time, the young flounder settle on the sea floor, where those lopsided eyes give it the perfect view of ocean and sky. These two centimetre-long flounder had probably settled on the sand recently when the Robinsons scooped them up.<br /> Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue: 172 November December 2021.<br /> Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-animals-next-door/<br /> Photograph Richard Robinson © 2021.<br /> Rights managed image. No Reproduction without prior written permission.