One look at the face of a whitemargin stargazer (Uranoscopus sulphureus) is surely enough to scare off any unwanted intruders, with that enormous, pouting mouth full of frightening teeth and bulging eyes staring upwards.
They look like a small, grotesque person who’s been buried up to their neck in the sand and are really angry about it.
Actually, stargazers do their best not to be seen at all. They are ambush predators with supreme abilities to subdue their prey.
Much of the time, they bury most of their body in the sandy seabed, using their wide pectoral fins to shift the substrate aside, then leaving only their eyes sticking up and their mouth ready to swallow anything that comes near.
If no prey is forthcoming, stargazers can lure them in.
