A novel eye in 'eyeless' shrimp from hydrothermal vents of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Nature volume 337, pages458–460(1989)Cite this article

Abstract

Rimicaris exoculata1 is a shrimp that swarms over high-temperature (350 °C) sulphide chimneys at Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal fields (3,600 m)1–7. This shrimp lacks an externally differentiated eye1, having instead a pair of large organs within the cephalothorax immediately beneath the dorsal surface of the transparent carapace, connected by large nerve tracts to the supraesophageal ganglion. These organs contain a visual pigment with an absorption spectrum characteristic of rhodopsin. Ultra-structural evidence for degraded rhabdomeral material suggests the presence of photoreceptors. No image-forming optics are associated with the organs. We interpret these organs as being eyes adapted for detection of low-level illumination and suggest that they evolved in response to a source of radiation associated with the environment of hydrothermal vents.

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Affiliations

  1. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 02543, USA

    Cindy Lee Van Dover

  2. Laboratory of Sensory Physiology, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 02543

    Ete Z. Szuts

  3. Department of Physiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, 02118, USA

    Ete Z. Szuts

  4. Department of Bioengineering and Institute for Sensory Research, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 13244, USA

    Steven C. Chamberlain

  5. Department of Geology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

    J. R. Cann

Authors
  1. Cindy Lee Van Dover
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  2. Ete Z. Szuts
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  3. Steven C. Chamberlain
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  4. J. R. Cann
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Dover, C., Szuts, E., Chamberlain, S. et al. A novel eye in 'eyeless' shrimp from hydrothermal vents of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Nature 337, 458–460 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/337458a0

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