Premium Essay

Cephalopod Eyes Case Study

Submitted By
Words 1686
Pages 7
Cephalopods are considered the cleverest invertebrates on earth. It is proven that they can complete complex intellectual tasks, such as recognizing faces and solving puzzles (Anderson & Richter, 2010). Yet the remarkable characteristic of cephalopods is their ability to camouflage into their environment. These creatures can mimic their surroundings’ spectral and textural information by controlling chromatophores and iridophores found in their skin cells (Mäthger, 2009). This becomes more impressive since cephalopod eyes contain a single photoreceptor (Mäthger, 2009). Cephalopod eyes encompass a single rhodopsin type which absorbs light wavelengths up to 492 nm, meaning a cephalopod should only detect blue and achromatic light (Brown, 1958). …show more content…
The study only used an IPhone camera to record patterns and the study should be redone with an appropriate recording device. Differences in light levels & other colors in Charlie’s enclosure could have distorted her displayed patterns. For concrete evidence, the experiment should be redone with proper recording equipment, accurate light measuring tools, and realistically colored substrates. All other substrates and surfaces should be removed from the tank to isolate Charlie and the colored substrate. The experiment should also be conducted with multiple octopuses to determine if Charlie’s behaviors consistently appeared in all test octopuses. Future assessments could determine if cephalopods have difficulty distinguishing between solid colors and pattern-colored stimuli. Further research could determine the minimum distance cephalopods need to distinguish color. Moreover, there is great potential to work on how cephalopods interact with polarized light (Cronin, 2003). Future investigations could test if there is a relationship between polarized light and detecting color, possibly pursuing intraspecific communication (Cronin, 2003). Finally, there is the possibility of human error considering the project’s observations were conducted by only one person, which may lead to bias in observations …show more content…
2010. Octopuses (Enteroctopus dofleini) Recognize Inidividual Humans. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. 13: 261-272.

Brown, P.K., Brown, P.S. 1958. Visual pigments of the octopus and cuttlefish. Nature, 182: 1288-1290.

Cronin, T.W., Shashar, N., Caldwell, R.L., Marshall, J., Cheroske, A.G., Chiou, T. 2003. Polarization Vision and Its Role in Biological Signaling. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 43, 4: 549-558.

Mäthger, L.M., Barbosa, A., Miner, S., Hanlon, R.T. 2006. Color blindness and contrast perception in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) determined by a visual sensorimotor assay. Vision Research. 46, 11: 1746-1753.

Mäthger, L.M., Shashar, N., Hanlon, R.T. 2009. Do cephalopods communicate using polarized light reflections from their skin? Journal of Experimental Biology. 212: 2133-2140.

Ritcher, J.N., Hochner, B., Kuba, M.J. 2016. Pull or Push? Octopuses Solve a Puzzle Problem. Plos One.

Stubbs, A.L., Stubbs, C.W. 2016. Spectral discrimination in color blind animals via chromatic aberration and pupil shape. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 113,

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Penguins

...The Emperor Penguin and its Endangered Enviroment The emperor penguin is one of the most interesting species of penguin. This flightless animal lives on the Antarctic ice and in the frigid surrounding waters. This bird has a life span of 15-20 years and lives in colonies. Its diet is mainly that of a carnivore. The majority comes from fish. With all the beauty and intriguing life style of this penguin, not all is good. This penguin is in danger. What is causing this danger? It is not any predator in its wild habitat, it’s the effect of human ignorance. Climate change is slowly destroying the ice the penguin lives on. The emperor is on a downward spiral in which extinction is possible at the end of this century. With climate change at a dangerous level, warming may melt sea ice at rates which will decrease its habitat to nothing. With all these dangers there is still more, over fishing by humans is depleting the food source. In this paper I will outline and describe the problems these penguins face. I will also give a brief background on this flightless bird. Emperor is the largest of all penguins—an average bird stands some 45 inches (115 centimeters) tall. Penguins withstand physiological adaptations and cooperative behaviors in order to deal with an incredibly harsh environment, where wind chills can reach -76°F (-60°C)(Van Woert, Michael). They huddle together to escape the wind and reserve the warmth. Individuals take turns moving to the group's protected and relatively...

Words: 2939 - Pages: 12

Free Essay

My Papers

...Ads by Torntv V9.0Ad Options ------------------------------------------------- Albatross | | | | | | Albatrosses are large seabirds in the biological family Diomedeidae of the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). Albatrosses are among the largest of flying birds, and the great albatrosses (genus Diomedea) have the largest wingspans of any extant (living) birds. They are closely related to the procellariids, storm-petrels, and diving-petrels, all of which also are part of the Procellariiformes. Some systematists recognize another order, Ciconiiformes, instead of Procellariiformes (see Taxonomy and evolution) Albatrosses range widely in the Southern Ocean (South Pole Ocean or Antarctic Ocean) and the North Pacific Ocean. They are generally absent from the North Atlantic Ocean, althoughfossil remains show they once occurred there too and occasional vagrants are encountered. Albatrosses are colonial, nesting for the most part on remote oceanic islands, often with several species nesting together. Pair bonds between males and females form over several years, with the use of ritualized dances, and will last for the life of the pair. A breeding season can take over a year from laying to fledging, with a single egg laid in each breeding attempt. Albatrosses are highly efficient in the air, using dynamic soaring and slope soaring to cover great distances with little exertion. They feed on squid, fish, and krill by either scavenging, surface seizing, or diving...

Words: 3514 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Cthulu 1ac

...In the ocean exists an ancient god Cthulhu, sleeping in his stone house in R’yleh under the sea. He sleeps and telepathically invades our dreams, turning them into nightmares. There is a cult that follows the ancient god, and they relate the details of this ancient being and his intentions: The HP Lovecraft Wiki 2014 [“Cthulhu,” at http://lovecraft.wikia.com/wiki/Cthulhu] The most detailed descriptions of Cthulhu in "The Tale of Cthulhu" are based on statues of the creature. One, constructed by an artist after a series of baleful dreams, is said to have "yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature [...] A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings."[6] Another, recovered by police from a raid on a murderous cult, "represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind."[7] When the creature finally appears, the story says that the "thing cannot be described," but it is called "the green, sticky spawn of the stars", with "flabby claws" and an "awful squid-head with writhing feelers." Johansen's phrase "a mountain walked or stumbled" gives a sense of the creature's scale[8] (this is corroborated by Wilcox's dreams, which "touched wildly on a gigantic thing 'miles high' which walked or lumbered about"). Cthulhu is depicted as having a worldwide...

Words: 9602 - Pages: 39

Free Essay

Soy and Milk Allergy

...immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to neutralize the proteins known as allergens.  Allergens are organic compound that contain hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, which form an important part of living organisms. Allergens contain protein, which is often regarded as a constituent of the food that we eat. For these to cause an allergic response they need to be bound to a protein once they are in the body.  An allergic person’s immune system believes allergens to be damaging and so produces a special type of antibody (IgE) to attack the invading material.  This leads to other blood cells to release further chemicals (including histamine), which together cause the symptoms of an allergic reaction.  The most common symptoms are:  sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes and ears, severe wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, sinus problems, a sore palate, swelling, sickness, vomiting, diarrhea and nettle-like rash.Almost anything can be an allergen for someone, but the most common are: wheat, soy, milk, eggs, nuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish and other, like sulfites, which are food intolerances and can be misdiagnosed as an allergen.  There are some non-protein allergies that include drugs such as penicillin.        Wheat allergy is one of the eight most common food allergies.   Wheat allergies often affect children, and can also occur in adults.  Allergic reactions usually occur in susceptible individuals a few minutes to a few hours after they have consumed wheat.  Signs and...

Words: 5096 - Pages: 21

Free Essay

Religion

...A Protagonist of the Scientific Revolution: Galileo Galilei was one of the protagonists of the scientific revolution, best known for his astronomical discoveries by means of a telescope (including sunspots, Jupiter’s satellites, and the phases of Venus), for his defense of heliocentrism, and for his study of the natural laws regarding falling bodies. Galileo, however, gave key contributions also to the development of the modern scientific methodology; for this reason, he holds a special place in the philosophy of science and epistemology. Life: Galileo was born in or nearby Pisa from Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati. His father was a well known lutenist and music theorist, and the young Galileo was well versed in the art as well (Galileo’s youngest sibling, Michelangelo, became indeed an accomplished lutenist). During his youth, Galileo moved through different locations in Tuscany, among which the monastery of Vallombrosa, run by Camaldolese monks. The story goes that until 1581 Galileo had not studied mathematics. After considering priesthood and enrolling into a program for physician at the University of Pisa, Galileo suddenly realized his mathematical vocation upon attending a geometry lecture. Immediately, he started discovering ingenious facts and creating crafts such as thermoscope. As early as 1589, Galileo held a chair in mathematics at the University of Pisa, which position he kept until 1592, when he moved to Padua. There, he remained until 1610. ...

Words: 6109 - Pages: 25

Free Essay

Biology

...Naturwissenschaften (2004) 91:255–276 DOI 10.1007/s00114-004-0515-y REVIEW Ulrich Kutschera · Karl J. Niklas The modern theory of biological evolution: an expanded synthesis Published online: 17 March 2004  Springer-Verlag 2004 Abstract In 1858, two naturalists, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, independently proposed natural selection as the basic mechanism responsible for the origin of new phenotypic variants and, ultimately, new species. A large body of evidence for this hypothesis was published in Darwin’s Origin of Species one year later, the appearance of which provoked other leading scientists like August Weismann to adopt and amplify Darwin’s perspective. Weismann’s neo-Darwinian theory of evolution was further elaborated, most notably in a series of books by Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr, Julian Huxley and others. In this article we first summarize the history of life on Earth and provide recent evidence demonstrating that Darwin’s dilemma (the apparent missing Precambrian record of life) has been resolved. Next, the historical development and structure of the “modern synthesis” is described within the context of the following topics: paleobiology and rates of evolution, mass extinctions and species selection, macroevolution and punctuated equilibrium, sexual reproduction and recombination, sexual selection and altruism, endosymbiosis and eukaryotic cell evolution, evolutionary developmental biology, phenotypic plasticity, epigenetic inheritance and...

Words: 17126 - Pages: 69

Free Essay

Bad Bug Book

...that is not an inherent natural constituent of the food itself, in an amount that poses a reasonable possibility of injury to health, or (2) a substance that is an inherent natural constituent of the food itself; is not the result of environmental, agricultural, industrial, or other contamination; and is present in an amount that ordinarily renders the food injurious to health. The first includes, for example, a toxin produced by a fungus that has contaminated a food, or a pathogenic bacterium or virus, if the amount present in the food may be injurious to health. An example of the second is the tetrodotoxin that occurs naturally in some organs of some types of pufferfish and that ordinarily will make the fish injurious to health. In either case, foods adulterated with these agents are prohibited from being introduced, or offered for introduction, into interstate commerce. Our scientific understanding of pathogenic microorganisms and their toxins is continually advancing....

Words: 91823 - Pages: 368

Free Essay

Environmental Law

...Coastal Resources Management, Policy and Planning In Bangladesh Md. Masudur Rahman, Zubair Ahmed Chowdhury and Md. Nasir Uddin Sada Department of Fisheries Bangladesh Rahman M.M, Z.A Chowdhury and M.N.U Sada. 2003. Coastal resources management, policy and planning in Bangladesh, p. 689 - 756. In G. Silvestre, L. Garces, I. Stobutzki, M. Ahmed, R.A. Valmonte-Santos, C. Luna, L. Lachica-Aliño, P. Munro, V. Christensen and D. Pauly (eds.) Assessment, Management and Future Directions for Coastal Fisheries in Asian Countries. WorldFish Center Conference Proceeding 67, 1 120 p. Abstract This paper reviews the coastal fishery resources of Bangladesh emphasizing the coastal environment, capture fisheries and management issues relative to the sector. Bangladesh’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers an area of about 166 000 km2. This area has abundant natural resources such as fish, shrimps, crabs and other marine products. Shrimp and fish trawling is the most important economic activity in this area. The fishery sector makes a significant contribution to the national economy in terms of foreign exchange, income generation and employment. It is very important in nutrition, especially in providing animal protein. In 1997 - 99, the marine fisheries sector contributed 22% of the total fishery production of 1 373 000 t. However, the resources are being destroyed in many ways. The fisheries resources have declined and fishers are getting poorer. The decline is partly due to estuarine...

Words: 38220 - Pages: 153

Free Essay

Whales and Fish

...Who’s Eating All the Fish? The Food Security Rationale for Culling Cetaceans A Report to Humane Society International By Wilf Swartz and Daniel Pauly Presented at IWC 60 June 23, 2008 Santiago, Chile Table of Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction................................................................................................................................... 2 A re-packaging of the whaling debate ........................................................................................ 2 Fish and food security................................................................................................................. 3 Fish (and food security) in crisis................................................................................................. 4 Marine Mammals: Threat to Food Security? ............................................................................ 7 The ‘whales-eat-our-fish’ argument ........................................................................................... 7 Flaws of the argument................................................................................................................. 7 Political success of the ‘whales-eat-our-fish’ lobby ................................................................. 10 Globalization of Fisheries: A Real Threat to Regional Food Security..............

Words: 14391 - Pages: 58

Premium Essay

Answers to Conceptual Sciences

...Answers to Conceptual Integrated Science End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 1: About Science Answers to Chapter 1 Review Questions 1 The era of modern science in the 16th century was launched when Galileo Galilei revived the Copernican view of the heliocentric universe, using experiments to study nature’s behavior. 2 In Conceptual Integrated Science, we believe that focusing on math too early is a poor substitute forconcepts. 3 We mean that it must be capable of being proved wrong. 4 Nonscientific hypotheses may be perfectly reasonable; they are nonscientific only because they are not falsifiable—there is no test for possible wrongness. 5 Galileo showed the falseness of Aristotle’s claim with a single experiment—dropping heavy and lightobjects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. 6 A scientific fact is something that competent observers can observe and agree to be true; a hypothesis is an explanation or answer that is capable of being proved wrong; a law is a hypothesis that has been tested over and over and not contradicted; a theory is a synthesis of facts and well-tested hypotheses. 7 In everyday speech, a theory is the same as a hypothesis—a statement that hasn’t been tested. 8 Theories grow stronger and more precise as they evolve to include new information. 9 The term supernatural literally means “above nature.” Science works within nature, not above it. 10 They rely on subjective personal experience and do not lead to testable hypotheses. They lie outside...

Words: 81827 - Pages: 328

Free Essay

Global Warming

...Physical Chemistry Understanding our Chemical World Physical Chemistry Understanding our Chemical World Paul Monk Manchester Metropolitan University, UK Copyright  2004 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England Telephone (+44) 1243 779777 Email (for orders and customer service enquiries): cs-books@wiley.co.uk Visit our Home Page on www.wileyeurope.com or www.wiley.com All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to permreq@wiley.co.uk, or faxed to (+44) 1243 770620. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Other Wiley...

Words: 233668 - Pages: 935