![]() The findings were published this week in Scientific Reports. The study was co-authored by researchers from the University of Hawaii and Nova Southeastern University. “Because light organs can be found within several lineages across the animal Tree of Life, results from this study have the potential to reach far beyond our model system.” “Our study raises the exciting possibility that light organ photosensitivity is present across diverse groups, and should be investigated in other bioluminescent animals,” Bracken-Grissom said. The research team suggests photophore photosensitivity may provide the shrimp with sight beyond their own eyes and serve as a mechanism for fine-tuning light emissions during counterillumination. However, with new evidence that these structures can also detect light, Bracken-Grissom says scientists are now reconsidering the role photophores play in an organism's ability to counterilluminate and survive in the deep sea. ![]() It has long been known that photophores play a critical role in counterillumination as the structures that emit light. Certain organisms like burrowing sea urchins and mud shrimp that live within. During the journey, they adjust their camouflage to both the progression of day to night and the varying degrees of light intensity throughout the water column. Earths vast expanses of water are key to the success of all life on Earth. Many of these deep-sea animals participate in the largest migration on the planet, a daily vertical ascent from the deep sea to shallow water to feed. ![]() By mimicking natural light from above, animals can match their backgrounds and hide their appetizing silhouettes from predators below - a form of camouflage called counterillumination. “For the first time in deep-sea invertebrates, we are seeing that these light-emitting organs are light-sensitive.”īioluminescence is the production of light by living creatures and most commonly found in the dark depths of the ocean. “We were looking for proteins that are known to be light sensitive, and we found them in the photophores,” said Danielle DeLeo, a co-author of the study and post-doctoral researcher in Bracken-Grissom’s lab. While the shrimp have eyes, the photophores appear to work as extraocular photoreceptors allowing these animals to detect and respond to light outside ocular tissues. She led a research team that took a closer look at these luminous organs in deep-sea shrimp. Wudan Yan Gabriel Alcala Science Life Is Tough for Teenage Parasites For a deep-sea parasitic worm, the epic journey to adulthood starts in a fish’s intestines. The organs, called photophores, cannot see shapes but FIU marine scientist Heather Bracken-Grissom says they are capable of detecting light. Now scientists believe these same organs can actually see. Whatever the reason a male will leave his burrow and his lifelong mate.Many deep-sea creatures have organs all over their bodies that emit light. “Something has caught this male’s attention, perhaps an irresistible odour or a distant call. ![]() The Zebra Mantis Shrimp may live with a partner for up to 20 years (Photo: BBC) The second a larger female offers him her partnership, the Zebra Mantis Shrimp makes a break for it, without so much as a break-up row. So surely the Zebra Mantis Shrimp would never dream of abandoning his long-term partner? If he suddenly leaves for another mate they will all starve to death. She – and their hundreds of young – rely on him to bring food. “She relies on him to bring her food.” It’s not you, it’s me “She may have been his partner for twenty years,” chimes in Sir David Attenborough, somehow humanising the villainous creature. He is providing the food to his female mate who is in the process of breeding. Still, the shrimp is briefly redeemed for his actions when viewers are provided a glimpse of life below ground. Viewers were sickened by the Bobbit worm in episode three of Blue Planet II (Photo: BBC)
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