1. Surprising characteristics of visual systems of invertebrates.
- Author
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González-Martín-Moro J, Hernández-Verdejo JL, and Jiménez-Gahete AE
- Subjects
- Animals, Biological Evolution, Compound Eye, Arthropod physiology, Compound Eye, Arthropod ultrastructure, Electromagnetic Radiation, Flight, Animal, Insecta physiology, Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate physiology, Predatory Behavior, Refraction, Ocular, Regeneration physiology, Snails physiology, Species Specificity, Spiders physiology, Invertebrates physiology, Vision, Ocular physiology
- Abstract
Objective: To communicate relevant and striking aspects about the visual system of some close invertebrates., Material and Methods: Review of the related literature., Results: The capacity of snails to regenerate a complete eye, the benefit of the oval shape of the compound eye of many flying insects as a way of stabilising the image during flight, the potential advantages related to the extreme refractive error that characterises the ocelli of many insects, as well as the ability to detect polarised light as a navigation system, are some of the surprising capabilities present in the small invertebrate eyes that are described in this work., Conclusions: The invertebrate eyes have capabilities and sensorial modalities that are not present in the human eye. The study of the eyes of these animals can help us to improve our understanding of our visual system, and inspire the development of optical devices., (Copyright © 2016 Sociedad Española de Oftalmología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2017
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