Supplementary material from "Deep-sea starfish from the Arctic have well-developed eyes in the dark" ...

• Main Authors: Birk, Marie Helene, Blicher, Martin E., Garm, Anders
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Royal Society 2018
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3983970.v1; https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Deep-sea_starfish_from_the_Arctic_have_well-developed_eyes_in_the_dark_/3983970/1

Asteroids, starfish, are important members of the macro-benthos in almost all marine environments including the deep sea. Starfish are in general assumed to be largely olfactory guided, but recent studies have shown that two tropical shallow water species rely on vision alone to find their habitat at short distances. Their compound eyes are found at the tip of each arm and they vary little between examined species. Still, nothing is known about vision in the species found in the aphotic zone of the deep sea or whether they even have eyes. Here, 13 species of starfish from Greenland waters, covering a depth range from shallow waters to the deep sea below 1000 m, were examined for the presence of eyes and optical and morphological examinations were used to estimate the quality of vision. Further, species found in the aphotic zone below 320 m were checked for bioluminescence. All species, except the infaunal Ctenodiscus crispatus , had eyes, and two were found to be bioluminescent. Interestingly, one of the ...