Newsdeck

Newsdeck

Scallops have 200 eyes, which function like a telescope: study

Scallops may look like simple creatures, but the seafood delicacy has 200 eyes that function remarkably like a telescope, using living mirrors to focus light, researchers said Thursday.

Most creatures’ eyes have lenses that focus light.

But scallops have concave mirrors at the back of their eyes.

Scientists have known since the 1960s that Pecten scallops see by reflecting light off these concave mirrors onto the retina above, said the report in the journal Science. Some crustaceans and deep sea fish also have eyes like this.

But now they have found a way to peer more deeply into these mirrors than ever before, by using a microscope that rapidly freezes samples so they do not get dehydrated and retain their shape.

The result is first-ever view of a mosaic of tiny mirrors and crystals, carefully arranged inside scallops’ small poppy seed-like eyes which line their outer edge, known as the mantle.

Each mirror is layered, reflecting wavelengths of light in their habitat and giving them a spatial view of their surroundings.

Each mirror is also “tiled with a mosaic of square-shaped crystals, minimizing surface defects for a clearer picture,” the Science report said.

“The mirror forms images on a double-layered retina, to separately image both peripheral and central fields of view.”

While it is still difficult to know what the world looks like to a scallop, researchers say this well-honed peripheral vision likely helps the scallop control and guide its movement while swimming, enabling it to assess which things around it are static or moving.

The findings illustrate scallops’ “remarkable” ability to grow their own complex visual system, and may pave the way for “novel bio-inspired optical devices for imaging and sensing applications,” the report said.

The study was led by researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science and Lund University in Sweden. DM

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.