Aega antarctica fish. It has strong muscles in its oesophagus and large salivary glands and rapidly fills its dilatable hind gut with blood. It then drops off the fish and spends several months on the seabed digesting the blood. In a research study, specimens of "Aega antarctica" were kept in a marine aquarium at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, where they were maintained at a temperature of . It was found that they would feed on a number of species of fish native to the North Sea and in this research they were fed on live European plaice ("Pleuronectes platessa"). One fish
Flatfish as an early relative of the flatfish and transitional fossil. In a typical modern flatfish, the head is asymmetric, with both eyes on one side of the head. In "Amphistium", the transition from the typical symmetric head of a vertebrate is incomplete, with one eye placed near the top of the head. The researchers concluded, "the change happened gradually, in a way consistent with evolution via natural selection—not suddenly, as researchers once had little choice but to believe." Flatfishes have been cited as dramatic examples of evolutionary adaptation. Richard Dawkins, in "The Blind Watchmaker", explains the flatfishes' evolutionary history thus: