18 ms·

Extreme mobility of mantis shrimp eyes

28 points by dnetesn 9y ago

sushisource 9y ago
What is it about mantis shrimp that they have this seemingly comically over-engineered vision system? They eat small prey, so that's obviously one reason to have decent vision, but I can't imagine why they need so developed a vision system where other animals eating the same prey have no such need. Weird.
- bane 9y ago
  It's possible that the vision system evolved long ago under radically different circumstances and just had no imperative to get rid of it.
  - bsder 9y ago
    Unlikely. Vision is so metabolically expensive that it disappears really quickly once it no longer confers an advantage. On the other side of the equation, vision is so stupidly useful that it has evolved independently from several different systems in different organisms.
    - bane 9y ago
      Do we know that this is true for features of vision systems in the same way it is for the system in general? For example, animals who end up in dark environments lose sight relatively quickly in a few generations, but for other cases, do animals tend to lose specific parts of their vision system - color, edge detection, etc.?
      - downer68 9y ago
        Yes, newts and salamanders in cave systems have lost their eyes, due to scarcity of nutrition and habitats devoid of light. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_blind_salamander https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_blind_salamander
Zee2 9y ago
If they can see the polarization of light, perhaps rolling their eyes can change the filtering of the polarization?
- forgueam 9y ago
  The same thought came to my mind. When wearing my polarized sunglasses, sometimes the screens on gas station pumps will be unreadable. However, if I rotate my head slightly one way or the other, the polarization filter is removed and I can read the screen clearly.
joevandyk 9y ago
More on mantis shrimp: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
- jonathanoliver 9y ago
  That was the first thing I thought of too! I wonder if he'll update the comic in light of these new findings.
  - c17r 9y ago
    This is my goto for Mantis Shrimp information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FEj9U-CJM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FEj9U-CJM
bwang29 9y ago
This makes me think that maybe mantis shrimp relies on powerful sensor to see the world but doesn't have a lot of good software / internal hardware to do further processing. Human's eye sensor seems poor compare to the ones of mantis shrimp but a lot of work is done in the post processing. It's be difficult to clearly define if mantis shrimp can indeed see "more".
- yosito 9y ago
  You're right. Radiolab had a recent episode that goes into this; https://overcast.fm/+JaxJ5s https://overcast.fm/+JaxJ5s

28 points by dnetesn 9y ago

What is it about mantis shrimp that they have this seemingly comically over-engineered vision system? They eat small prey, so that's obviously one reason to have decent vision, but I can't imagine why they need so developed a vision system where other animals eating the same prey have no such need. Weird.

bane 9y ago
It's possible that the vision system evolved long ago under radically different circumstances and just had no imperative to get rid of it.
- bsder 9y ago
  Unlikely. Vision is so metabolically expensive that it disappears really quickly once it no longer confers an advantage. On the other side of the equation, vision is so stupidly useful that it has evolved independently from several different systems in different organisms.
  - bane 9y ago
    Do we know that this is true for features of vision systems in the same way it is for the system in general? For example, animals who end up in dark environments lose sight relatively quickly in a few generations, but for other cases, do animals tend to lose specific parts of their vision system - color, edge detection, etc.?
    - downer68 9y ago
      Yes, newts and salamanders in cave systems have lost their eyes, due to scarcity of nutrition and habitats devoid of light. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_blind_salamander https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_blind_salamander

Zee2 9y ago

If they can see the polarization of light, perhaps rolling their eyes can change the filtering of the polarization?

forgueam 9y ago
The same thought came to my mind. When wearing my polarized sunglasses, sometimes the screens on gas station pumps will be unreadable. However, if I rotate my head slightly one way or the other, the polarization filter is removed and I can read the screen clearly.

joevandyk 9y ago

More on mantis shrimp: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp

jonathanoliver 9y ago
That was the first thing I thought of too! I wonder if he'll update the comic in light of these new findings.
- c17r 9y ago
  This is my goto for Mantis Shrimp information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FEj9U-CJM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FEj9U-CJM

bwang29 9y ago

This makes me think that maybe mantis shrimp relies on powerful sensor to see the world but doesn't have a lot of good software / internal hardware to do further processing. Human's eye sensor seems poor compare to the ones of mantis shrimp but a lot of work is done in the post processing. It's be difficult to clearly define if mantis shrimp can indeed see "more".

yosito 9y ago
You're right. Radiolab had a recent episode that goes into this; https://overcast.fm/+JaxJ5s https://overcast.fm/+JaxJ5s