Camouflaged Chiton (armoured mollusc) from Sulawesi seen through water. The armour is made of 8 overlapping plates to allow flexibility, and a tough s

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Camouflaged Chiton (armoured mollusc) from Sulawesi seen through water. The armour is made of 8 overlapping plates to allow flexibility, and a tough skirt. The multiple eyes found all over the shell have been shown to be \true eyes\" capable of forming focused images - as reported in a 2015 article by Ling Li of Harvard (Science Vol. 350, no 6263, pp 952-956. The eyes are made of aragonite - as is the rest of the shell. Aragonite is a ceramic material rarely used for eyes, but which serves the chiton well both in and out of water - a neccesity for an animal occupying the intertidal zone."

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Size: 5616px × 3744px
Photo credit: © PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, aragonite, armour, camouflage, cermaic, chiton, eye, eyes, large, mollusc, mollusk, optical, sand, sea, sulawesi, tropical, unique, unusual, water