See-through deep sea shrimp has 12 retinas in each eye
Digital Reporter
Tuesday, January 20, 2015, 12:13 PM -
That thing in the video above, Paraphronima gracilis, has its eyes on you. All 24 retinas' worth, in fact.
Though it looks like an alien whose favourite pastime is menacing coastal settlements, it's actually less than 2 cm across, and lives hundreds of metres below the waves.
It's dark down there, and now new research says the tiny creatures have 12 retinas in each of its two compound eyes (they're the red things in the image below).
Image Credit:Dr. Karen Osborn
The researchers reckon each one sends an image to the shrimp's brain, which puts them all together to make its environment appear brighter.
The research is published in the latest issue of Current Biology.
One of its authors, Jamie Baldwin-Fergus, says she is looking into why shrimp of this kind, known as hyperiid amphipods, have such radically different kinds of eyes, even though they all live in more or less the same habitat.
Examples of eyes: A) no eyes, Mimonectes; B) simple eyes, Lanceola; C) mirrored pigment cups, Schypholanceola; D) single pair eyes with crystiline optics, Vibilia; E) single pair eyes with crystalline optics and light guides, Hyperia; F) single pair eyes with upward- and lateral-looking portions, Pronoe; G) two pair eyes, Phronima; H) thin, diffuse retina sheet, Cystisoma; I) cylindrical eye, Leptocotis. Copyright: Karen Osborn and J. Baldwin Fergus
"I’m also piecing together bits of natural history to explore these optical adaptations," Baldwin-Fergus told the Weather Network Tuesday. "We understand very little about their ecology and it’s difficult for us to observe them in their natural habitat as our submersibles are fairly obtrusive. We piece things together the best we can."
As far as how the new knowledge may be applied, she said exploring how creatures' eyes at that depth balance light sensitivity and image sharpness can potentially be used in the field of biomimetics, which adapts biological systems to human technology.
"It’s not something I am involved in, but it’s a possibility for further study and development," she says.
