[extropy-chat] Looking for examples of naturally evolved X-ray vision?

Dirk Bruere dirk.bruere at gmail.com
Tue Jan 17 21:16:14 UTC 2006


On 1/17/06, Alfio Puglisi <alfio.puglisi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 1/17/06, kevinfreels.com <kevin at kevinfreels.com> wrote:
> >
> > My first reaction was to say "no". After all, once you leave the visible
> > spectrum, light becomes considerable less usefull to the purposes of
> > survival.
>
> Good infrared vision (in the body temperature range) would be quite
> valuable for both nocturnal predators and prey. Since they don't have
> it, my hypothesis is that the tecnological obstacles to build a good
> infrared biological camera are too big to be overcome by evolution.
> Liquid nitrogen-cooled eyes anyone?


Rattle Snakes
http://www.desertmuseum.org/books/rattlesnakes.html

"Rattlesnakes and other pit vipers have remarkable heat-sensing pits.
Located behind each nostril, below a straight line that would directly
connect the nostril to the eye, is a loreal pit (called this because it is a
depression in the loreal scale). These pits are highly effective in
detecting differences in temperature even several yards away. At short
ranges within a foot or so, minute differences (of perhaps fractions of a
degree) may be perceived."

Maybe evolution has not been working long enough.

Dirk
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