With its huge eyes, comical name and diminutive size, Mark R. Smith’s image of a baby Hawaiian bobtail squid can’t help but raise a smile. A curiously endearing creature, the cephalopod is just 1.5cm across, its mantle cavity bearing more than a passing resemblance to a rather natty shower cap. But it is also a beautiful example of symbiosis – nature’s version of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” – for on the underside of the squid is a light organ which houses bioluminescent bacteria. The squid offers the bacteria protection and food, while the bacteria emit a glow – a handy trait that the squid uses to offset its silhouette, helping it to evade predators in the depths below. Mark R. Smith’s entry combines several images of a Hawaiian bobtail squid with different focus lengths to create a final picture with greater depth of field than normal. (Photo by Mark R. Smith/Wellcome Images/Macroscopic Solutions)

“Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise is an amusement park consisting of an aquarium, shopping mall, hotel, marina and amusement rides. It is located in Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Japan. It opened for business on May 8, 1993”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Shoal of sardines and sharks swim in a tank at Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise on March 19, 2009 in Yokohama, Japan. (Photo by Junko Kimura/Getty Images)

Debbie Barton from Blufton, South Carolina, asks supporters of Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump to sign a petition calling for one day of voting and the eradication of voting machines, ahead of a “Team Trump” event in Beaufort, South Carolina, U.S. February 21, 2024. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

A boy takes his basset hound for a walk with a difference in Noosa, Australia on Saturday, March 9, 2024, during the annual Surf Dog Championships. (Photo by Roberta Holden/Solent News)

Sеx worker Geraldine wearing cat make-up sits on her usual corner as she waits for clients outside the Revolution subway station, in Mexico City, Saturday, March 13, 2021. Geraldine, 30, a sеx worker since age 15, says many of her regular clients have stopped coming amid the coronavirus pandemic and that seeing new clients presents new health and security risks. She is most concerned about the risk of bringing COVID-19 home to her partner, who has diabetes. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

Bediha Gun (L) of Turkey in action against Oleksandra Khomenets (R) of Ukraine during their semi final bout of the women's Freestyle 55kg category at the European Wrestling Championships in Budapest, Hungary, 30 March 2022. (Photo by Tibor Illyes/EPA/EFE)

A crow attacks a passerby, in a series of crow attacks on residents at a neighbourhood in Singapore on February 14, 2023. (Photo by Leonard Phuah/Shin Min Daily/Singapore Press Holding Media Trust via Reuters)

A Hindu holy man looks at a decoration on the ghats of the river Saryu as part of preparations for the groundbreaking ceremony of a temple to the Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Monday, August 3, 2020. As Hindus prepare to celebrate the groundbreaking of a long-awaited temple at a disputed ground in northern India, Muslims say they have no firm plans yet to build a new mosque at an alternative site they were granted to replace the one torn down by Hindu hard-liners decades ago. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)