ArticlePloS one2014
Photon hunting in the twilight zone: visual features of mesopelagic bioluminescent sharks.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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11 citing papers in PubMed, 41 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
- The visual system of the longest-living vertebrate, the Greenland shark.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Widespread and Convergent Evolution of Cone Monochromacy in Galeomorph Sharks.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Head anatomy of a lantern shark wet-collection specimen (Chondrichthyes: Etmopteridae).Journal of anatomy · 2023Article
- From extraocular photoreception to pigment movement regulation: a new control mechanism of the lanternshark luminescence.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Evidence that eye-facing photophores serve as a reference for counterillumination in an order of deep-sea fishes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Etmopteridae bioluminescence: dorsal pattern specificity and aposematic use.Zoological letters · 2019Article
- De novo transcriptome analyses provide insights into opsin-based photoreception in the lanternshark Etmopterus spinax.PloS one · 2018Article
- Seeing in the deep-sea: visual adaptations in lanternfishes.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Review
- The presence of lateral photophores correlates with increased speciation in deep-sea bioluminescent sharks.Royal Society open science · 2015Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The mesopelagic zone is a visual scene continuum in which organisms have developed various strategies to optimize photon capture. Here, we used light microscopy, stereology-assisted retinal topographic mapping, spectrophotometry and microspectrophotometry to investigate the visual ecology of deep-sea bioluminescent sharks [four etmopterid species (Etmopterus lucifer, E. splendidus, E. spinax and Trigonognathus kabeyai) and one dalatiid species (Squaliolus aliae)]. We highlighted a novel structure, a translucent area present in the upper eye orbit of Etmopteridae, which might be part of a reference system for counterillumination adjustment or acts as a spectral filter for camouflage breaking, as well as several ocular specialisations such as aphakic gaps and semicircular tapeta previously unknown in elasmobranchs. All species showed pure rod hexagonal mosaics with a high topographic diversity. Retinal specialisations, formed by shallow cell density gradients, may aid in prey detection and reflect lifestyle differences; pelagic species display areae centrales while benthopelagic and benthic species display wide and narrow horizontal streaks, respectively. One species (E. lucifer) displays two areae within its horizontal streak that likely allows detection of conspecifics' elongated bioluminescent flank markings. Ganglion cell topography reveals less variation with all species showing a temporal area for acute frontal binocular vision. This area is dorsally extended in T. kabeyai, allowing this species to adjust the strike of its peculiar jaws in the ventro-frontal visual field. Etmopterus lucifer showed an additional nasal area matching a high rod density area. Peak spectral sensitivities of the rod visual pigments (λmax) fall within the range 484-491 nm, allowing these sharks to detect a high proportion of photons present in their habitat. Comparisons with previously published data reveal ocular differences between bioluminescent and non-bioluminescent deep-sea sharks. In particular, bioluminescent sharks possess higher rod densities, which might provide them with improved temporal resolution particularly useful for bioluminescent communication during social interactions.
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