Colour vision in marine organisms.
Colour vision in the marine environment is on average simpler than in terrestrial environments with simple or no colour vision through monochromacy or dichromacy. Monochromacy is found in marine mammals and elasmobranchs, including whales and sharks, but not some rays. Conversely, there is also a greater diversity of colour vision in the ocean than on land, examples being the polyspectral stomatopods and the many colour vision solutions found among reef fish. Recent advances in sequencing reveal more opsin (visual pigment) types than functionally useful at any one time. This diversity arises through opsin duplication and conversion. Such mechanisms allow pick-and-mix adaptation that tunes colour vision on a variety of very short non-evolutionary timescales. At least some of the diversity in marine colour vision is best explained as unconventional colour vision or as neutral drift.
Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4070, Australia. Electronic address: justin.marshall@uq.edu.au.
Justin
J
Marshall
Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Karen L
KL
Carleton
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
Thomas
T
Cronin
D000818:Animals; D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000502:physiology*; D055253:Color Vision / Q000502:physiology*