Scientists have recently discovered that Rats move their eyes in opposite direction when running around. Using small high-speed cameras, they have discovered the motions of the rat's eyes. Their eyes allow them to be constantly surveying the area above them, watching for predators. This observation also shows that rats do not fuse the visual information into one image, like humans. Scientists hypothesize that this vision drastically helps them survive against birds and other predators.
NOS Themes
Role of motivation and curiosity
Science is based on evidence
Another NOS is Science is collaborative, being as how it was a group of scientist working together to come to this conclusion
ReplyDeletehttp://phys.org/news/2013-05-rats-eyes-eye-airspace.html
ReplyDeleteHere is another article about it for more info. Also, it said that this allows them to permanently keep the space above them in their view. They also found that the positions of their eyes differed with their head position. When their head moved upwards, their eyes looked forward and cross eyed. This will likely lead into investigations into whether other animals do this as well
http://esciencenews.com/sources/physorg/2013/05/27/rats.move.their.eyes.opposite.directions.keep.eye.airspace.above.them.researchers.show
ReplyDeleteThis is another article that discusses how the rats have opposite eye views. This is an evolutionary adaption as it gives them a wider field of view. This protects them predators, and helps them find prey.
I've never actually considered that mammals might move there eyes in different directions or that they wouldn't combine the vision of both their eyes to produce one image. I wonder if the two one-eyed images rats collect lack a great sense of depth-perception? as people have trouble with depth perception when only looking through one eye.
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