Whole-body photoreceptor networks are independent of 'lenses' in brittle stars.

ABSTRACT: Photoreception and vision are fundamental aspects of animal sensory biology and ecology, but important gaps remain in our understanding of these processes in many species. The colour-changing brittle star Ophiocoma wendtii is iconic in vision research, speculatively possessing a unique whole-body visual system that incorporates information from nerve bundles underlying thousands of crystalline 'microlenses'. The hypothesis that these might form a sophisticated compound eye-like system regulated by chromatophores has been extensively reiterated, with investigations into biomimetic optics and similar supposedly 'visual' structures in living and fossil taxa. However, no photoreceptors or visual behaviours have ever been identified. We present the first evidence of photoreceptor network

SUBMITTER: Sumner-Rooney L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5805950 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature