THINGS I STUDY
Why fish vision?
(for the moment I have not updated regarding my other projects, please wait, or you can see my pubs)
The evolution of color vision among teleosts is of great interest because eye design and structure provide a straightforward pathway to understand adaptive mechanisms in response to the visual field. Vision research has characterized the genetic basis of spectrally distinct photosensitive molecules in the retina (the opsins), and how its wavelength sensitivity is related to the available light in a determined ecosystem. Visual systems of fishes and other animals have been extensively studied (when I first started I had no idea it was such a big topic). There is vast body of literature that has characterized several mechanisms of spectral tuning of fishes and how ecology and sexual selection play a role in the evolution of spectral sensitivities.
Aquatic habitats, due to water spectral properties like absorption and scattering, vary greatly in light transmission, consequently, this variation is reflected in the adaptive eyes of aquatic animals. The great diversity of teleosts and their multiple ecological niches provide an adequate dataset to analyze how natural selection have shaped the spectral sensitivities of different fish species. Thus, fish-vision research provides a unique substrate to understand evolutionary patterns.
(for the moment I have not updated regarding my other projects, please wait, or you can see my pubs)
The evolution of color vision among teleosts is of great interest because eye design and structure provide a straightforward pathway to understand adaptive mechanisms in response to the visual field. Vision research has characterized the genetic basis of spectrally distinct photosensitive molecules in the retina (the opsins), and how its wavelength sensitivity is related to the available light in a determined ecosystem. Visual systems of fishes and other animals have been extensively studied (when I first started I had no idea it was such a big topic). There is vast body of literature that has characterized several mechanisms of spectral tuning of fishes and how ecology and sexual selection play a role in the evolution of spectral sensitivities.
Aquatic habitats, due to water spectral properties like absorption and scattering, vary greatly in light transmission, consequently, this variation is reflected in the adaptive eyes of aquatic animals. The great diversity of teleosts and their multiple ecological niches provide an adequate dataset to analyze how natural selection have shaped the spectral sensitivities of different fish species. Thus, fish-vision research provides a unique substrate to understand evolutionary patterns.