turns out chitons have crystal eyes

[aineotter]

Chitons (in case y'all don't already know) are molluscs with awesome jointed shells vaguely resembling a trilobite. Some of the most awesome eyeballs on the planet are grown by molluscs, namely squid and octopi, which have eyes wired the right way around, as opposed to our own, backwards-wired eyes (I mean really, if you were designing a light

Comments

[ursuscelticus]

Have I mentioned about how I'm utterly and completely in love with your brain? Cause I am!

[singingnettle]

And horseshoe crabs, which are otherwise some of the most primitive animals on the planet (they're so stupid that the other crabs won't even talk to them), have a eyes (actually, I think it's a single eye) so much like humans' that we use them for optic research. Life is weird and wonderful.

OT, I adore that photo of you in the icon. How'd you get an underwater shot?

[aineotter]

I think it's a very closely spaced pair of compound eyes...and they are compound eyes, so they can't be *that* similar to human eyes, but then we use squid axons in neural research just because they're big enough to manipulate.

[singingnettle]

Maybe there is some other bit about limulus research and eyes that I'm not quiiittte remembering--it was a long time ago that I was working in the psychophysics lab.

[aineotter]

Oh, the picture; Cern gave me a SCUBA case for my camera as a birthday present. It's *awesome* :) makes it so I can use the camera in necropsy and wash it after, and I'm also gonna have such fun with it on the beach this summer!

[singingnettle]

It's kind of like swimming around with a diving mask on--it would provide a very clear view although without the accommodation in the lens itself. One wonders what they're evolved to perceive. All animals have senses optimized for their perceptual needs; what do crystal eyes need to see?

There is a song, or story, or something, in that.