High-resolution vision in pelagic polychaetes

• Published in: Current biology Vol. 34; no. 7; pp. R269 - R270
• Main Authors: Bok, Michael J., Macali, Armando, Garm, Anders
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Inc 08.04.2024
• Subjects: Animals; Arthropods; Biologi; Biological Sciences; Ecology; Eye - anatomy & histology; Mollusca; Natural Sciences; Naturvetenskap; Vision, Ocular; Zoologi; Zoology
• ISSN: 0960-9822; 1879-0445
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.055

High-resolution object vision — the ability to separate, classify, and interact with specific objects in the environment against the visual background — has only been conclusively shown to have evolved in three of the thirty-five animal phyla: chordates, arthropods, and mollusks (cephalopods)1. However, alciopid polychaetes (Phyllodocidae, Alciopini), which possess a pair of bulbous camera-type eyes, have also been hypothesized to achieve high acuity. In this study, we examined three species of night-active pelagic alciopids from the Mediterranean Sea. Our optical, morphological, and electrophysiological investigations show that their eyes have high spatial acuity and temporal resolution, supporting the notion that they are capable of active, high-resolution object vision. These results encourage interesting hypotheses about the visual ecology of these enigmatic polychaetes. Bok et al. show that alciopids, a group of open-ocean polychaete worms, are uniquely capable of high-resolution object-detecting vision, previously only confirmed in vertebrates, arthropods and cephalopods.