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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

How blind fish find their way in pitch-black caves

Species with very small eyes or no eyes at all have a highly uneven distribution of sensory receptors on their heads.
A full-view shot of a Golden Line Barbel on a black background

Cavefish of the species Sinocyclocheilus furcodorsalis lack eyes but compensate with arrays of pressure receptors along their bodies. Credit: Dante Fenolio/SPL

Like a sleepy person searching for the bathroom in the dark, eyeless cavefish navigate using surrounding walls as a guide1.

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Nature 610, 423 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03227-0

References

  1. Chen, B. et al. Proc. R. Soc. B https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1641 (2022).

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