Nov 5, 2024
That’s Wild: Chitons’ Eye Evolution
Chitons are small marine mollusks with shells made of overlapping plates, like armor, covered with light-sensitive cells that act as their eyeballs. Some chitons have hundreds of complex "shell eyes,” which have lenses that can distinguish shapes as well as light, embedded in their shells. Other chitons have thousands of smaller, simpler “eyespots” that work together like pixels to form a visual sensor distributed over their shells.
By Matt Knoth
Center for Biological Diversity
