PZ dug up some footage of Vampy's unusual eye protection.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/08/friday_cephalopod_the_vampire.php

I'd wondered at a lot of the footage of these guys if they have no pupil at all, or if they just usually have it very expanded... now I'm guessing that they have no pupil/iris structure at all, and just use this sphincter mechanism. Does anyone know if this sphincter arrangement is unique in vampyroteuthis? I know some squids have eyelids, but I think they're linear like ours, and they (usually?) have a circlular pupil (while cuttles have W-shaped ones and octos have rectangles, usually, but they're all more typical iris-pupil arrangements AFAIK.) I also don't know if they have corneas...

Now that looks strange! :vampyro:

hehe, squinting squid.

We recently rewatched some of the Discovery channel deep water episodes (newer TV, better picture) and several of the creatures (angler fish and another, maybe the rattail AIR - so there) had eyes that looked like that (not the sphincter but the pupiless, reflective blue eye). Unfortunately, nothing was mentioned about the eye during the program.

Very cool. Thanks!

Neat! I'd also wondered at that. Since it was evolutionarily developed independently of vertebrate eyes, one would have no reason to expect a homolog for the iris or other parts. (look at the nautilus eye, without even a covering). Amazing though. Any experts have a weigh-in on this? Do all coleoids have this ability, or just the one with the hugest eyes?
-Will

THAT IS SO MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS OF COOL! I want one of those as a pet please!

thats crazy lookin