Spectral discrimination in color blind animals via chromatic aberration and pupil shape
Abstract
We describe a means of obtaining spectral information using the principles of physical optics and an off-axis pupil shape without requiring spectrally distinct photoreceptor classes. The mechanism described here offers a possible solution to a long-standing puzzle in marine animals: cephalopods dramatically change color for both producing chromatically matched camouflage and signaling to conspecifics, despite having a single photoreceptor channel. The ability of these animals to achieve such excellent color matching to their surroundings, despite being "color blind" in the traditional sense, can be understood if they exploit chromatic aberration to deduce spectral information. The bizarre off-axis pupils of these animals can be understood as an adaptation that maximizes spectral information, even at the expense of image acuity.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- July 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1524578113
- Bibcode:
- 2016PNAS..113.8206S
- Keywords:
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- spectral discrimination;
- chromatic aberration;
- color vision;
- pupil shape;
- cephalopod