Squid With Lopsided Pair Of Eyes Survives In Ocean's Gloomy Area

Deep sea dwellers are known to develop strange features that help them survive in their dark and dreary habitat. It is a fact that there is more to explore under the sea, and the latest proof of this is the discovery of a (relatively) new squid species.

A "cockeyed" squid, called Histioteuthis heteropsis, is among the strangest of them. Duke University biologist Kate Thomas shared with Phys.org, "You can't look at one and not wonder what's going on with them." This is probably apt, considering that these creatures have one normal eye, with a pair that is bulging, gigantic yellow one.

Underwater videos showed the squid using its large eye to look upward, while its small eye is on a constant lookout for meals by always looking downwards. Their mismatched eyes have long puzzled scientists. 

Live Science reported that they are actually born with a pair of normal eyes, but the left eye rapidly enlarges and becomes a semi-tube at some point during the juvenile stages of their development. Thomas noted that the deep sea is a great natural laboratory for the universe to make eye designs, as different kinds of eyes will be necessary to understand bioluminescence, among other things.

The species, which are also known as the strawberry squid due to its bright pink color, live in an area of the ocean known as the "twilight zone," which is located 200 to 1,000 meters below the surface. Their eyes are perfect for their circumstances. The eye that is looking down, for instance, look for bioluminescence.

Sonke Johnsen, senior author of the study, also noted that there is no way it is able to pick out shapes against the ambient light. "And once it is looking for bioluminescence, it does not really need to be particularly big, so it can actually shrivel up a little bit over generations. But the eye looking up actually does benefit from getting a bit bigger."