The Cockeyed Strawberry Squid

The Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) introduces us to Histioteuthis heteropsis, or the strawberry squid. You might notice that this animal has one huge green eye, and one small blue eye. It's not disabled. This is how they all are. They evolved two very different eyes for different uses in the "twilight zone." That's where this squid lives, and the area between shallow water that gets sunlight and the deepest depth where light doesn't reach.

The big left eye looks upward to spot shadows cast by prey in the dimly lit waters above. The eye’s tubular shape helps collect as much downwelling light as possible. Often, this eye has a yellow lens to see through the luminescent camouflage of its prey. The squid’s right eye is small and looks downward. This eye searches for flashes of bioluminescence produced by prey or predators lurking in the darker waters below. This squid is sometimes called the cockeyed squid for the remarkable difference in size between the two eyes.

The footage was captured by the ROV Doc Ricketts 725 meters (2,378 feet) down in Monterey Canyon off the coast of California. -via Laughing Squid (of course)


#squid #eye #MBARI

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