Corals may lack eyes, but they are far from blind. These delicate animals sense light in ways that continue to amaze and inspire the scientific community.
Ecology
Sep 5, 2025
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46
Nine species of sea snakes have now been identified as having regained the genetic requirements for advanced color vision, demonstrating that once a complex trait has been lost to evolutionary time, it may be regained in ...
Evolution
Dec 20, 2024
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27
Frogs have maintained a surprising diversity of light-sensing proteins over evolutionary time, according to a new study led by a Penn State researcher. Light-sensing proteins, called opsins, enable vision in sighted animals, ...
Evolution
Jun 18, 2024
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14
A few years ago while on a fishing trip in the Florida Keys, biologist Lori Schweikert came face to face with an unusual quick-change act. She reeled in a pointy-snouted reef fish called a hogfish and threw it onboard. But ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 22, 2023
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103
As butterflies flit among flowers, they don't all view blossoms the same way. In a phenomenon called sexually dimorphic vision, females of some butterfly species perceive ultraviolet color while the males see light and dark. ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 10, 2023
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502
A new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford University Press, finds that the annulated sea snake, a species of venomous snake found in ocean waters around Australia and Asia, appears to have evolved to ...
Evolution
Jul 13, 2023
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67
Is it possible to control an animal's or a cell's behavior using light? In recent years, remarkable progress in optogenetics has been made as research methods come close to realizing this goal.
Plants & Animals
Nov 28, 2022
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25
Gathering vision data for hundreds of vertebrates and invertebrates, U of A biologists have deepened scientists' understanding of animal vision, including the colors they see.
Plants & Animals
Jun 6, 2022
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927
Many life forms use light as an important biological signal, including animals with visual and non-visual systems. But now, researchers from Japan have found that neuronal cells may have initially evolved to regulate digestion ...
Evolution
Apr 6, 2021
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56
The colors in a flower patch appear completely different to a bear, a honeybee, a butterfly and humans. The ability to see these colors is generated by specific properties of opsins—light-sensitive proteins in the retina ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 9, 2021
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