#Underwater

spockvarietyhour emily84
Anonymous asked:

What colors can sharks see?

bunjywunjy answered:

sharks actually can’t see any colors at all!

image

they’re colorblind in the truest sense of the word- shark eyes have NO cone cells to work with, only light-sensitive rod cells! 

image

so sharks still have excellent vision especially in low-light conditions, but they see the world only as the presence or absence of light with no concept of color.

memezeek

Does that mean only black and white, in simple terms?

bunjywunjy

what we call “black” is a function of being able to process the absence of color, and a shark’s visual experience would be different since it’s coming from a different place altogether. I don’t know if humans would be able to conceptualize how a shark sees the world at all, especially once you throw their electrical sense in there!

image
uncle-beanbag

I've thought about this a lot and I think I may be close here.


What we see

image



image

What sharks see. They'd get a distortion around the fish or other shark because of the electrical field. You can pick up immediately what it is in shape and reflected light from its skin. It stands out compared to the darker background but its not easy to tell exact species. Would also describe why surfers get nipped on boards, sharks thinking they're other animals.

bunjywunjy

that's a cool theory! now we just need to spin it for the grant committee

sharksunderwaterfaxvision