Diagrams (top) and electron microscope images (bottom) of chiton shells. From left to right: Aesthetes (green) are fount on all chitons, while shell eyes (blue) and eyespots (red) only evolved in a ...

You’d probably walk past a chiton without even seeing it. These creatures often look like nothing more than another speck of seaweed on the crusty intertidal rocks. But it sees you. At least, if it’s ...

This essay was launched by reading an almost unintelligible (to me) scientific paper about chiton eyes. Nevertheless, that paper led to others, and here I have summarized some of the related natural ...

The visual systems of an obscure group of mollusks provide a rare natural example of path-dependent evolution, in which a critical fork in the creatures’ past determined their evolutionary futures.

Ling Li, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded $1.05 million over three years to lead a team studying the visual abilities of a unique underwater creature ...