Editing Camouflage (section)

=== Ultra-blackness ===

{{further|Underwater camouflage}}

[[File:Humpback anglerfish.png|thumb|[[Humpback anglerfish|Blackdevil anglerfish]] is one of several deep-sea fishes camouflaged against very dark water with a black dermis.]]

Some deep sea fishes have very black skin, reflecting under 0.5% of ambient light. This can prevent detection by predators or prey fish which use bioluminescence for illumination. ''[[Oneirodes]]'' had a particularly black skin which reflected only 0.044% of 480&nbsp;nm wavelength light. The ultra-blackness is achieved with a thin but continuous layer of particles in the [[dermis]], [[melanosome]]s. These particles both absorb most of the light, and are sized and shaped so as to scatter rather than reflect most of the rest. Modelling suggests that this camouflage should reduce the distance at which such a fish can be seen by a factor of 6 compared to a fish with a nominal 2% reflectance. Species with this adaptation are widely dispersed in various orders of the [[phylogenetic tree]] of bony fishes ([[Actinopterygii]]), implying that [[natural selection]] has driven the [[convergent evolution]] of ultra-blackness camouflage independently many times.<ref name="Davis Thomas 2020">{{cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=Alexander L. |last2=Thomas |first2=Kate N. |last3=Goetz |first3=Freya E. |last4=Robison |first4=Bruce H. |last5=Johnsen |first5=Sönke |last6=Osborn |first6=Karen J. |display-authors=3 |title=Ultra-black Camouflage in Deep-Sea Fishes |journal=Current Biology |year=2020 |volume=30 |issue=17 |pages=3470–3476.e3 |issn=0960-9822 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.044 |pmid=32679102 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2020CBio...30E3470D }}</ref>