This Hot-Tempered Sea Fish Has a Wider Mouth Than Body (Pics & Video)

The sarcastic fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi) has a rather curious name, with an attitude to match. This creepy little fish can scare off animals much larger than itself with one show of its distended mouth, which is wider than its head, or even its whole body, for that matter.

Marine biologist Watcharapong Hongjamrassilp's thesis research suggests that fringeheads use the different vivid colors on their mouths to communicate with each other. But then, they don't look like they've got many nice things to say. As for that peculiar name: 'fringehead' refers to the floppy fronds of tissue falling over the fish's eyes, while 'sarcastic' is thought to either denote the animal's sardonic closed-mouth expression, or derive from the Greek word sarkázein, which means 'to tear flesh'. And well, either of them could be true – just look at this.