Research by MSI PI Trevor Wardill (assistant professor, Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior) into the vision of cuttlefish has received international attention. In a recently published by the journal Science Advances, Professor Wardill and his colleagues described putting 3D glasses on a cuttlefish and showing it videos of shrimp in order to see if these cephalopods had depth perception, as humans do. The experiment showed that, unlike their cousins the octopuses and squid, cuttlefish do indeed have depth perception. The article can be found on the journal website: Cuttlefish Use Stereopsis to Strike at Prey.
This story has been featured by multiple news outlets; many articles include video of the experiment:
- New York Times: Yes, This Cuttlefish is wearing 3-D Glasses
- Smithsonian Magazine: Scientists Velcroed 3-D Glasses to Cuttlefish to Study Their Depth Perception
- The Atlantic: What Scientists Learned by Putting 3-D Glasses on Cuttlefish
- The Guardian: Cuttlefish Given 3D Glasses to Determine How They Judge Distance
- CNet: Cuttlefish Watch 3D Movies in Peculiar New Study on Depth Perception
- CNN: Scientists Put Glasses on Cuttlefish and Showed Them Film Clips. The Results Were Surprising.
Professor Wardill uses MSI resources to support his group’s research into the information-processing principles for visually guided behaviors in flies and cephalopods.