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Haplochromis burtoni: a case study

  • Chapter
The Visual System of Fish

Abstract

In species where vision is an important sensory input, the eyes typically have a spectrum of specialized adaptations which permit vision under a wide variety of circumstances. These evolutionary modifications exist at all levels of organization and consequently have long been the object of scientific inquiry. The selective pressures responsible for production of specialized ocular adaptations arise both from the fundamental physical laws governing light and from the time course of its natural variation, both daily and yearly. For example, the diurnal variation in light intensity, which can be 6–7 orders of magnitude, is no obstacle to our use of the visual system because of adaptive modifcations from the gross structure of the eye to the genetic control of biochemical processes responsible for phototransduction. Although it is exciting to figure out how such adaptations work, a further challenge lies in discovering the selective forces which caused these changes in the course of evolution. The analysis of fish vision holds promise for this enterprise because of the enormous variety of species and because of their specialized visual needs.

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Authors
  1. Russell D. Fernald
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Optometry and Visual Science, City University, London, UK

    Ron Douglas

  2. Department of Pure and Applied Biology, Imperial College, London, UK

    Mustafa Djamgoz

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© 1990 Chapman and Hall

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Fernald, R.D. (1990). Haplochromis burtoni: a case study. In: Douglas, R., Djamgoz, M. (eds) The Visual System of Fish. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0411-8_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0411-8_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6672-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-0411-8

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