Squid With Mismatched Eyes Swim In The Deep Sea: What We Need To Know About The Species' Eyes

A squid that has mismatched eyes is found in the deep sea. Researchers are looking into the fact on why such squid have a different pair of eyes.

According to a report, the researchers from Duke University may have found the answer as to why this certain squid has mismatched eyes. Histioteuthis heteropsis is the official name of the squid. The species is born with the same eyes, however, the left eyes tends to grow rapidly to a bigger size.

There have been 150 videos that the researchers were able to view on the squid's behavior underwater. These were the ones that swam at the Monterey Submarine Canyon in Monterey Bay, Calif. The videos had been recorded for the past three decades.

The researchers were able to find out that the squid swam in an unconventional way and that the larger eye always looked upwards. It has been concluded that the larger eye may have been the one that is used to search for other animals within the sea.

The smaller is focused downward and is concluded that the squid uses the smaller eye to scan the deep waters for any bioluminescence. The squid with mismatched eyes is usually found 200 to 1000 meters below the water's surface.

Meanwhile, a young biologist Richard Young already studied the squid's movement underwater and its mismatched eyes. He had a hypothesis that the larger eye was used to detect dim sunlight. The larger eye is used to detect larger prey swimming overhead. This hypothesis from Young has been done in the 1970's.

However, it has been hard to bring about a conclusion since it was hard to study the squid real time. The researchers then decided to watch videos of the species that had been recorded for the past years. The conclusion that the researchers now indicate means that the pair of eyes for the species are helping each other for the squid to survive.