Strange Sea Creature’s Enormous Eyes Baffle Scientists
Prodigious peepers perhaps play a part in a secret worm language, discovery suggests
The lowly bristle worm’s pair of eyes are inexplicably huge—20 times the heft of its head. They’re also incredibly capable eyes, able to see stuff you can’t. New research suggests the eyes might be involved in some sort of invisible communication scheme—a secret worm language, scientists say—and they could also help solve a big question about the evolution of eyes in general.
How big are these optic orbs? If yours were as big in relation to your head as the eyes on this bristle worm are to its head, yours would weigh around 220 pounds (100 kg). Scientists aren’t sure exactly what the enormous eyes are used for, but the new study offers some hints.
The worm, transparent except for its colorful eyes, lives around the Italian Island of Ponza. It’s a nocturnal creature, and the eyes are incredibly sensitive, able to see small things and movement at night — a level of vision typically seen only in much more advanced creatures.
“It’s really interesting because an ability like this is typically reserved for us vertebrates, along with arthropods (insects, spiders, etc.) and cephalopods (octopus, squid),” said Anders Garm, a biologist at the…
