Browsing by Subject "marine animal"
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Item Fine structure and optical properties of biological polarizers in crustaceans and cephalopods(SPIE, 2008-03-24) Chiou, Tsyr-Huei; Caldwell, Roy L.; Hanlon, Roger T.; Cronin, Thomas W.The lighting of the underwater environment is constantly changing due to attenuation by water, scattering by suspended particles, as well as the refraction and reflection caused by the surface waves. These factors pose a great challenge for marine animals which communicate through visual signals, especially those based on color. To escape this problem, certain cephalopod mollusks and stomatopod crustaceans utilize the polarization properties of light. While the mechanisms behind the polarization vision of these two animal groups are similar, several distinctive types of polarizers (i.e. the structure producing the signal) have been found in these animals. To gain a better knowledge of how these polarizers function, we studied the relationships between fine structures and optical properties of four types of polarizers found in cephalopods and stomatopods. Although all the polarizers share a somewhat similar spectral range, around 450- 550 nm, the reflectance properties of the signals and the mechanisms used to produce them have dramatic differences. In cephalopods, stack-plates polarizers produce the polarization patterns found on the arms and around their eyes. In stomatopods, we have found one type of beam-splitting polarizer based on photonic structures and two absorptive polarizer types based on dichroic molecules. These stomatopod polarizers may be found on various appendages, and on the cuticle covering dorsal or lateral sides of the animal. Since the efficiencies of all these polarizer types are somewhat sensitive to the change of illumination and viewing angle, how these animals compensate with different behaviors or fine structural features of the polarizer also varies.Item Polarization signals in the marine environment(SPIE, 2003-12-12) Cronin, Thomas W.; Shashar, Nadav; Caldwell, Roy L.; Marshall, Justin; Cheroske, Alexander G.; Chiou, Tsyr-HueiAlthough natural light sources produce depolarized light, partially linearly polarized light is naturally abundant in the scenes animals view, being produced by scattering in air or water or by reflection from shiny surfaces. Many species of animals are sensitive to light's polarization, and use this sensitivity to orient themselves using polarization patterns in the atmosphere or underwater. A few animal species have been shown to take this polarization sensitivity to another level of sophistication, seeing the world as a polarization image, analogous to the color images humans and other animals view. This sensory capacity has been incorporated into biological signals by a smaller assortment of species, who use patterns of polarization on their bodies to communicate with conspecific animals. In other words, they use polarization patterns for tasks similar to those for which other animals use biologically produced color patterns. Polarization signals are particularly useful in marine environments, where the spectrum of incident light is variable and unpredictable. Here, cephalopod mollusks (octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish) and stomatopod crustaceans (mantis shrimps) have developed striking patterns of polarization used in communication.