Friday, July 28, 2017

Giant Squid, Giant Eyes, but Rather Small Brain Lobes


Many researchers have questioned the deep sea squid's large eye size compared to other creatures who have a much smaller eye size, such as the cephalopods. Research has shown that even though squids have the largest eye orbit in the animal kingdom, they also have a very small optic lobe. This explains that squids do not rely on visual cues for communication like the cephalopods do because the optic lobe, which integrates visual information with motor tasks, is reduced. This new research is of current fascination because it goes against common anatomical sense and raises the question for future on whether there is some other underlying biological reason for this difference in sea animals.

Article

2 comments:

  1. I wonder if they have smaller occipital lobe because it is so dark where these individuals typically live so there is little need for that area of the brain to process visual information.

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  2. In the course, Deep Sea Biology, at Stockton, we learned a lot about animals like the giant squid as well as their anatomical features. These animals typically have heightened other senses to compensate for their lack of eye sight which is probably due to evolution.

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