ArticleScientific reports2014
Iso-luminance counterillumination drove bioluminescent shark radiation.
Article in Scientific reports, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- A complex pigmentation disorder reveals energetic and ecological costs of coloration in a deep-sea sharpnose sevengill shark.Journal of fish biology · 2026Article
- Diverse mechanical properties, composition, and performance of shark dermal denticles.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Bioluminescence and repeated deep-sea colonization shaped the diversification and body size evolution of squaliform sharks.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Correlation between bioluminescent blinks and swimming behavior in the splitfin flashlight fish Anomalops katoptron.BMC ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Systematic Distribution of Bioluminescence in Marine Animals: A Species-Level Inventory.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Histological evidence for secretory bioluminescence from pectoral pockets of the American Pocket Shark (Mollisquama mississippiensis).Scientific reports · 2020Article
- From extraocular photoreception to pigment movement regulation: a new control mechanism of the lanternshark luminescence.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Article
- Etmopteridae bioluminescence: dorsal pattern specificity and aposematic use.Zoological letters · 2019Article
- Article
- Extensive unusual lesions on a large number of immersed human victims found to be from cookiecutter sharks (Isistius spp.): an examination of the Yemenia plane crash.International journal of legal medicine · 2017Article
- The Flashlight Fish Anomalops katoptron Uses Bioluminescent Light to Detect Prey in the Dark.PloS one · 2017Article
- Molecular phylogeny of Squaliformes and first occurrence of bioluminescence in sharks.BMC evolutionary biology · 2015Article
- The presence of lateral photophores correlates with increased speciation in deep-sea bioluminescent sharks.Royal Society open science · 2015Article
- Article
- Photon hunting in the twilight zone: visual features of mesopelagic bioluminescent sharks.PloS one · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Counterilluminating animals use ventral photogenic organs (photophores) to mimic the residual downwelling light and cloak their silhouette from upward-looking predators. To cope with variable conditions of pelagic light environments they typically adjust their luminescence intensity. Here, we found evidence that bioluminescent sharks instead emit a constant light output and move up and down in the water column to remain cryptic at iso-luminance depth. We observed, across 21 globally distributed shark species, a correlation between capture depth and the proportion of a ventral area occupied by photophores. This information further allowed us, using visual modelling, to provide an adaptive explanation for shark photophore pattern diversity: in species facing moderate predation risk from below, counterilluminating photophores were partially co-opted for bioluminescent signalling, leading to complex patterns. In addition to increase our understanding of pelagic ecosystems our study emphasizes the importance of bioluminescence as a speciation driver.
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