Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Ecology

When one eye is better than two

Nature volume 399, pages 305–307 (1999)Cite this article

Evolution has generated a bewildering variety of life forms on this planet. Curiously, it has also occasionally produced animals from entirely different families that seem to have converged on a similar design plan — apparently as a result of similar lifestyles and environmental pressures. One instance of this, reported by Pettigrew et al.1 and Fritsches and Marshall2 in Current Biology, is vision in the chameleon and in the sandlance Limnychthyes fasciatus, a small teleost fish1,2,3,4.

The chameleon catches insects with a quick flick of its long tongue5. The sandlance lies concealed in underwater sand beds with only its eyes protruding above the surface, then lunges at tiny, unsuspecting copepods (aquatic crustaceans) that stray too near4. Pettigrew et al. and Fritsches and Marshall now show that there are extraordinary parallels between these two behaviours, and between the visual systems that mediate them.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Keeping an eye on things — independent eye movements in the chameleon and sandlance.
Figure 2: How the sandlance and the chameleon could gauge depth by rotating a single eye.

References

  1. Pettigrew, J. D., Collin, S. P. & Ott, M. Curr. Biol. 9, 421–424 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Fritsches, K. A. & Marshall, N. J. Curr. Biol. 9, R272-R273 (1999).

  3. Land, M. F. Curr. Biol. 9, R286-R288 (1999).

  4. Pettigrew, J. D. & Collin, S. P. J. Comp. Physiol. A 177, 397–408 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Harkness, L. Nature 267, 346–349 (1977).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Land, M. F. Nature 373, 658–659 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Wallace, G. K. J. Exp. Biol. 36, 512–525 (1959).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Kral, K. Behav. Processes 43, 71–77 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Walls, G. L. Vision Res. 2, 69–80 (1962).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Centre for Visual Sciences, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, PO Box 475, Canberra, 2601, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Mandyam V. Srinivasan

Authors
  1. Mandyam V. Srinivasan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Srinivasan, M. When one eye is better than two. Nature 399, 305–307 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/20550

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/20550

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing