If it were our size, this worm would have eyes that weigh 50 kilos each!

To put yourself in the shoes of this amazing animal, you have to imagine yourself having two eyes weighing 50 each kgkg-Fixed firmly in your giant eyeballs! Not very comfortable, I guarantee. However, this is the reality of the Vanadis silkworm, which are polychaete worms found in the Mediterranean Sea. eyeseyes The red and orange ones together weigh 20 times more than the rest of their heads. When we know, moreover, that these marine worms are nocturnal, we have to ask: What is the point of having such huge eyes?

Appointment with the eye doctor

Given the impossibility of making a worm convert at a pile of letters written on a sticker far away at the ophthalmologist's, scientists had to act differently. Otherwise, I mean morphological analysis and electrophysiological tests to determine what types of receptors are present in the eye – and therefore which ones WavelengthsWavelengths Subordinate a lighta light You can see the worms – and analyze visually to get an idea of ​​the type AccuracyAccuracy Where they can see. As evidenced by the results published in the journal Current biologyWell, it was worth it.

Tests revealed that the worms have what researchers call “ Exceptional vision », able to track small objects, in movementsmovementsAll in high definition. “ This is really interesting because this ability is usually reserved for vertebrates, arthropods and cephalopods “, announced in a I reported Anders Jarm is the author of the study.

Communicate as a couple

This set of tests did not make it possible to answer the question about the size and brightness of their eyes, but it led to a completely different discovery: the vision of these worms seems to be directed towards ultraviolet light (UVUV). And this time, researchers have their own idea about the origin of this ability.

According to them, the worms themselves are bioluminescent, emitting ultraviolet rays, which allows them to communicate with each other secretly. In fact, bioluminescence is usually blue or green, so in DomainDomain Visible light. The use of ultraviolet light makes the worms invisible to predators, but visible to other members of the worms ClassifyClassify. ” Thus our hypothesis is that they evolved extremely precise ultraviolet vision in order to have a secret language associated with itcouplingcoupling “, explains Anders Jarm. And the most romantic part of the story is that the observation of ultraviolet bioluminescence has never been made in another animal: so researchers hope that this “top-secret” love language will remain a model in global communication!