The charisma of whales is normally associated with their size, their ancient history, their apparently gentle approach to life. But it is not only those; the eyes have a role to play in why we love these creatures, among others (more on which in a subsequent post). Thanks to Alex Madrigal and The Atlantic for their attention to this topic:
Both humans and whales are mammals, so our eyes are derived from a common ancestor. Not only can we look at whales and they can look back at us, but we know enough about optics to infer their eyes’ capabilities from their anatomy. Animal eyes can be imagined as technological systems evolved with biological materials.
“We will make the fairly bold claim that it is sensible to approach eyes in essentially the same way that an optical engineer might evaluate a new video camera,” write Michael Land and Dan-Eric Nilsson, the authors of the Oxford University Press treatment of our topic, Animal Eyes.
Their eyes capture light in ways we can understand. Their eyes have a focal length. Their eyes have a maximum resolution.
So, what does the world look like to a whale? Continue reading
