Who's eye is this? number 3

[ToddMH]

Cool Todd... thanks for the info. I'm going to have to go after one with my under water ophthalmoscope!

Actually, if you could look into that eye with a little underwater opthalmoscope, do you know what you'd see?...

BTW: Rick, you were on that dive and even saw that same picture on my computer screen... so it should have been easy for you.

Ohhhhh...Busted!

 

[Uncle Pug]

I think I would probably see myself looking into that little eye with an ophthalmoscope.

 

[ToddMH]

I think I would probably see myself looking into that little eye with an ophthalmoscope.

Bingo!

 

[Uncle Pug]

In Googling scallop eyes I just found a very interesting (and disturbing) photo of a scallop rubbing it's eye with a finger after someone in the lab had lifted its retina with a pair of scissors.

 

[ToddMH]

Now that would make a very cool super macro photo... a self-portrait taken using a scallop eye.

What do they focus on... where is the retina?

I've seen just such a photo taken with a dissecting microscope. The photo, and the rest of what little I know about scallop eyes, came from a book "Animal Eyes." It details the incredible diversity of optical mechanisms in the animal kingdom.

As for the scallop retina, I should imagine that it is in front of the reflector. That is, that light passes through the retina, hits the mirror, and is then reflected back as an image on to the photoreceptors. The fact that it passes through the retina twice before hitting the photoreceptors is not as unusual as it may seem. In fact, even in our own retinas the photoreceptor layer is the _deepest_ layer of the retina such that light must pass through several layers of neurons before it hits the photoreceptors. As these layers are essentially transparent they don't unacceptably distort the image. I would guess that a scallop eye could do the same.

 

[Snowbear]

I quit

:frown:

 

[Marek K]

Shoot.... you guys are good! I quit:

Man, Pug, that full image is weird... looks like the guy is looking at us with all those eyes, grinning like Jack Nicholson...

And upside down it looks like... well...

 

[Uncle Pug]

They come in a variety of colors and addition decorations.
This is Lavender:

This Harry:

And this is Mick: