[Animals] A new study deepens our understanding of why animals differ in their ability to see colour

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The study answers some important questions, but it also generates more questions that can help us better understand animal vision.

 

Differences between vertebrates and invertebrates greatly affect the colors seen by animal species, as invertebrates see more short wavelengths of light than vertebrates.

A deeper understanding of the difference of vision

After collecting vision data on hundreds of vertebrates and invertebrates, biologists at the University of Arkansas recently managed to deepen their understanding of why animals see so differently, including the colors they see.

 

 

 

 

The press release - which was published by the University of Arkansas on the sixth of June - stated that the researchers found that animals that have adapted to land are able to see more colors than animals that have adapted to water, and that animals that have adapted to open terrestrial habitats see a wider range of colors. Colors compared to animals that have adapted to forests.

Land animals are able to see more colors than animals that live in water (Matt Murphy - University of Arkansas)
Biological sciences PhD student Matt Murphy and Assistant Professor Erica Westermann recently published their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

The press release explains how environment, evolution and, to some extent, genetic makeup influence how and what colors animals see. According to them, evolutionary history limits a species' ability to match color sensitivity to the available light in a habitat.

"Scientists have long assumed that animal vision evolved to match the colors of light found in their environments, but this hypothesis is difficult to prove, and there is still much we don't know about animal vision," Westermann said - in the statement.

"Collecting data on hundreds of species of animals that live in a wide range of habitats is a huge task, especially when you consider that invertebrates and vertebrates use different types of cells in their eyes to convert light energy into neuronal responses," she added.

 

 

Different types of opsin protein
An animal's ability to identify visual information depends on the wavelengths and intensity of light in a given environment. The quantity and wavelength sensitivity of a family of retinal proteins, called opsins, control the spectrum of light an animal sees, from ultraviolet to red light.

However, invertebrates and vertebrates use relatively different opsins in their retinas, and the researchers haven't determined whether these different opsins affect what the animals see or how they adapt to their light environments.

Scientists have deepened their understanding of vision in vertebrates and invertebrates, including the colors they see (Getty Images)
Murphy and Westerman collected vision data for 446 species of animals covering 4 phyla, one of which contained vertebrates, and the rest of these phyla contained invertebrates.

As Phys reports, their study showed that while animals adapt to environments, their ability to adapt can be physiologically constrained.

While vertebrates and invertebrates extensively use the same cell type (opsin) to see, they rely on these cells differently.

 

 

This physiological difference — which biologists call ciliary opsins in vertebrates and rhapdomric opsins in invertebrates — may explain why invertebrates are better at seeing short-wavelength light, even when the habitat requires vertebrates to also see short-wavelengths of light.

However, the difference could be due to genetic mutations that occur in vertebrates, not invertebrates, Westermann said, as these mutations can also limit the range of light in vertebrate vision.

The study generates more questions that could help better understand animal vision (Getty Images)
Answers and more questions
"Our study answers some important questions, but it also generates more questions that can help us better understand animal vision," Murphy said. "We can do more to assess differences in the structure of the retinas of vertebrates and invertebrates, or how their brains may handle visual information differently." .

 

https://www.aljazeera.net/science/2022/6/16/دراسة-جديدة-تعمق-فهما-لسر-اختلاف-قدرة