Monday, 25 April 2011

Rock-eyed sea creature

This lined chiton, whose anterior end is to the right, lives about
50 feet below the water's surface near Whidbey Island, Washington.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A tiny sea mollusk uses eyes made of a calcium carbonate crystal to spot predators lurking above, researchers say of the first such rocky lenses found in the animal kingdom.

While scientists had discovered the hundreds of eye-like structures on the surface of this armored mollusk, called a chiton, decades ago, they didn't know what they were made of or whether they could actually see objects or just sensed light.

"Turns out they can see objects, though probably not well," said study researcher Daniel Speiser, who recently became a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=182144

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