Newswise
Florida Atlantic University researcher and member of the Center for Ocean Exploration and Deep-Sea Research at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Dr. Tamara Frank, was part of an international research team that discovered the first vertebrate with eyes that use mirrors rather than lenses to focus light. Results from this research have been published in the January issue of Current Biology. The article, titled “A Novel Vertebrate Eye Using Both Refractive and Reflective Optics,” describes the unusual eyes of the spookfish, Dolichopteryx longipes. These eyes are tubular, which are similar in structure to the eyes of many other fish that swim in the ocean’s twilight zone where the background light field is very dim.