Researchers suspect that the eyes of the sea worm Vanadis, found near the Italian island of Ponza, also allow the species to have a secret language that is only visible to each other in the dark depths of the sea.
The nocturnal worm's eyes are so large that if humans' eyes were relatively large, our head would increase by 100 kilograms.
Scientists said the worm's eyes provide “extraordinary vision” equivalent to that of a mouse or rat, allowing the species to see small objects and track their movements in the sea at night.
From the University of Copenhagen, Dr. “This is really interesting because such an ability generally only occurs in us vertebrates, as well as in arthropods (insects, spiders) and cephalopods (squids, octopuses),” said Anders Garm.
One of the study's co-authors, Dr. “This is the first time such a progressive and detailed perspective has been demonstrated outside of these groups,” Garm said.
Scientists are trying to understand how the worm's simple nervous system carries out these very complex functions.
The worm has a transparent body except for the eyes. This means that the evolutionary benefits of eyes outweighed the consequences of making Vanadis visible to its predators.
Researchers aren't sure exactly what the big eyes are for, as these creatures are nocturnal and typically hide during the day, when eyes function best in all animals.
Dr Gram said: “As no one sees the worm during the day, we don’t know where it is hiding. Therefore, we cannot rule out the possibility that he uses his eyes during the day.”
What we do know is that their most important activities, such as foraging and mating, occur at night. Therefore, it is likely that their eyes have an important function at night.
Scientists also found that the worm's eyes evolved to see ultraviolet light, which is invisible to humans. This suggests that Vanadis saw bioluminescent signals in the pitch-black sea at night.
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