Seeing without eyes: octopus's skin possesses the same cellular mechanism for detecting light as its eyes do
Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - 20:50
in Biology & Nature
The skin of the California two-spot octopus can sense light even without input from the central nervous system. The animal does so by using the same family of light-sensitive proteins called opsins found in its eyes -- a process not previously described for cephalopods.