We’ve Got Our Eyes On You 👀

We’ve got our eyes on you 👀

Using 3D imaging and computational modeling, researchers from The University of Western Australia, the UWA Oceans Institute, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and MBARI compared the structure and function of the eyes of hyperiid amphipods, shrimp-like crustaceans that dwell in the dim waters of the ocean’s twilight zone. 

Hyperia has evolved eyes that keep watch on a wide field of view but can only visualize objects nearby. Phronima—commonly known as the barrel amphipod—can see well into the distance, but at the cost of a very narrow field of view. Phronima has solved this problem by evolving a second pair of eyes for wide, but poor, peripheral vision. 

Learn more about the barrel amphipod in our Animals of the Deep gallery.

Images courtesy of MBARI Adjunct Karen Osborn, Smithsonian Institution