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Letters to Nature

Nature 420, 68-70 (7 November 2002) | doi:10.1038/nature01144; Received 24 July 2002; Accepted 10 September 2002

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Adaptive visual metamorphosis in a deep-sea hydrothermal vent crab

Robert N. Jinks1, Tara L. Markley1, Elizabeth E. Taylor1, Gina Perovich2, Ana I. Dittel2, Charles E. Epifanio2 & Thomas W. Cronin3

  1. Department of Biology, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17604-3003, USA
  2. Graduate College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware, Lewes, Delaware 19958, USA
  3. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland 21250, USA

Correspondence to: Robert N. Jinks1 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.N.J. (e-mail: Email: rjinks@fandm.edu).

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Hydrothermal vents along the mid-ocean ridges host ephemeral ecosystems of diverse endemic fauna including several crustacean species1, 2, 3, 4, some of which undergo planktonic development as larvae up to 1,000 m above and 100 km away from the vents5, 6. Little is known about the role of vision in the life history of vent fauna. Here we report that planktonic zoea larvae of the vent crab Bythograea thermydron possess image-forming compound eyes with a visual pigment sensitive to the blue light of mesopelagic waters. As they metamorphose and begin to descend to and settle at the vents, they lose their image-forming optics and develop high-sensitivity naked-retina eyes. The spectral absorbance of the visual pigment in these eyes shifts towards longer wavelengths from larva to postlarva to adult. This progressive visual metamorphosis trades imaging for increased sensitivity, and changes spectral sensitivity from the blue wavelengths of the larval environment towards the dim, longer wavelengths7 produced in the deeper bathypelagic vent environment of the adults. As hydrothermal vents produce light7, vision may supplement thermal and chemical senses to orient postlarval settlement at vent sites.

  1. Department of Biology, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17604-3003, USA
  2. Graduate College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware, Lewes, Delaware 19958, USA
  3. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland 21250, USA

Correspondence to: Robert N. Jinks1 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.N.J. (e-mail: Email: rjinks@fandm.edu).