The giant eyes of giant squid are indeed unexpectedly large, but not if used for spotting sperm whales
Background: We recently reported (Curr Biol 22:683-688, 2012) that the eyes of giant and colossal squid can grow to three times the diameter of the eyes of any other animal, including large fishes and whales. As an explanation to this extreme absolute eye size, we developed a theory for visual perfo...
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Online Access: | https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4106547 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-187 |
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ftulundlup:oai:lup.lub.lu.se:85779ce3-e0ba-46c2-9608-d205f0c40f7d 2023-05-15T15:55:50+02:00 The giant eyes of giant squid are indeed unexpectedly large, but not if used for spotting sperm whales Nilsson, Dan-E Warrant, Eric Johnsen, Soenke Hanlon, Roger T. Shashar, Nadav 2013 https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4106547 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-187 eng eng BioMed Central (BMC) https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4106547 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-187 wos:000324296700001 scopus:84883547732 pmid:24010674 BMC Evolutionary Biology; 13, no 187 (2013) ISSN: 1471-2148 Zoology Vision Eyes Giant squid Sperm whale Bioluminescence Mesopelagic contributiontojournal/letter info:eu-repo/semantics/article text 2013 ftulundlup https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-187 2023-02-01T23:27:05Z Background: We recently reported (Curr Biol 22:683-688, 2012) that the eyes of giant and colossal squid can grow to three times the diameter of the eyes of any other animal, including large fishes and whales. As an explanation to this extreme absolute eye size, we developed a theory for visual performance in aquatic habitats, leading to the conclusion that the huge eyes of giant and colossal squid are uniquely suited for detection of sperm whales, which are important squid-predators in the depths where these squid live. A paper in this journal by Schmitz et al. (BMC Evol Biol 13:45, 2013) refutes our conclusions on the basis of two claims: (1) using allometric data they argue that the eyes of giant and colossal squid are not unexpectedly large for the size of the squid, and (2) a revision of the values used for modelling indicates that large eyes are not better for detection of approaching sperm whales than they are for any other task. Results and conclusions: We agree with Schmitz et al. that their revised values for intensity and abundance of planktonic bioluminescence may be more realistic, or at least more appropriately conservative, but argue that their conclusions are incorrect because they have not considered some of the main arguments put forward in our paper. We also present new modelling to demonstrate that our conclusions remain robust, even with the revised input values suggested by Schmitz et al. Article in Journal/Newspaper Colossal Squid Sperm whale Lund University Publications (LUP) BMC Evolutionary Biology 13 1 187 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Lund University Publications (LUP) |
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ftulundlup |
language |
English |
topic |
Zoology Vision Eyes Giant squid Sperm whale Bioluminescence Mesopelagic |
spellingShingle |
Zoology Vision Eyes Giant squid Sperm whale Bioluminescence Mesopelagic Nilsson, Dan-E Warrant, Eric Johnsen, Soenke Hanlon, Roger T. Shashar, Nadav The giant eyes of giant squid are indeed unexpectedly large, but not if used for spotting sperm whales |
topic_facet |
Zoology Vision Eyes Giant squid Sperm whale Bioluminescence Mesopelagic |
description |
Background: We recently reported (Curr Biol 22:683-688, 2012) that the eyes of giant and colossal squid can grow to three times the diameter of the eyes of any other animal, including large fishes and whales. As an explanation to this extreme absolute eye size, we developed a theory for visual performance in aquatic habitats, leading to the conclusion that the huge eyes of giant and colossal squid are uniquely suited for detection of sperm whales, which are important squid-predators in the depths where these squid live. A paper in this journal by Schmitz et al. (BMC Evol Biol 13:45, 2013) refutes our conclusions on the basis of two claims: (1) using allometric data they argue that the eyes of giant and colossal squid are not unexpectedly large for the size of the squid, and (2) a revision of the values used for modelling indicates that large eyes are not better for detection of approaching sperm whales than they are for any other task. Results and conclusions: We agree with Schmitz et al. that their revised values for intensity and abundance of planktonic bioluminescence may be more realistic, or at least more appropriately conservative, but argue that their conclusions are incorrect because they have not considered some of the main arguments put forward in our paper. We also present new modelling to demonstrate that our conclusions remain robust, even with the revised input values suggested by Schmitz et al. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nilsson, Dan-E Warrant, Eric Johnsen, Soenke Hanlon, Roger T. Shashar, Nadav |
author_facet |
Nilsson, Dan-E Warrant, Eric Johnsen, Soenke Hanlon, Roger T. Shashar, Nadav |
author_sort |
Nilsson, Dan-E |
title |
The giant eyes of giant squid are indeed unexpectedly large, but not if used for spotting sperm whales |
title_short |
The giant eyes of giant squid are indeed unexpectedly large, but not if used for spotting sperm whales |
title_full |
The giant eyes of giant squid are indeed unexpectedly large, but not if used for spotting sperm whales |
title_fullStr |
The giant eyes of giant squid are indeed unexpectedly large, but not if used for spotting sperm whales |
title_full_unstemmed |
The giant eyes of giant squid are indeed unexpectedly large, but not if used for spotting sperm whales |
title_sort |
giant eyes of giant squid are indeed unexpectedly large, but not if used for spotting sperm whales |
publisher |
BioMed Central (BMC) |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4106547 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-187 |
genre |
Colossal Squid Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Colossal Squid Sperm whale |
op_source |
BMC Evolutionary Biology; 13, no 187 (2013) ISSN: 1471-2148 |
op_relation |
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4106547 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-187 wos:000324296700001 scopus:84883547732 pmid:24010674 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-187 |
container_title |
BMC Evolutionary Biology |
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13 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
187 |
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1766391333529845760 |