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> "Other times, they’d see something they like and run towards it.” Can tardigrades really "see" in the traditional sense? Can they make out shapes, etc.? Do t
by 1024core 5y ago
> "Other times, they’d see something they like and run towards it.”
Can tardigrades really "see" in the traditional sense? Can they make out shapes, etc.? Do they have photo receptors plugged into the brain?
- jbotz 5y agoThey can't "really see"... they have eyespots with just a handful of light-sensitive cells and no lenses, so it's just gradients of light and dark. But they have other senses and I think the word "see" was metaphorical here, meaning they sensed the presence of an attractive stimulus. In some ways the real meaning of "see" doesn't depend on optics, you see?
- throwamon 5y agoAccording to a video from another comment, each eyespot is a single cell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kux1j1ccsgg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kux1j1ccsgg
- scotty79 5y agoI don't know. They seem to be able to squeeze out a lot of funtionality out of very limited numbers of cells. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point it was discovered that their light sensitive cells slosh around the cytoplasm inside the roughly spherical cell wall turning it into ad-hoc lenses even if for a brief moment. It still might be enough to get light intensity in a specific direction.