• Question: Which animal has the most photoreceptors?

    Asked by crouchingmurloc to Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam, Susana on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Benjamin Hall

      Benjamin Hall answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Hmm, very interesting question.

      Eagles have about 1 million photoreceptor cells per square millimetre of retina. That’s a hell of a lot more than we do! But Eagles have very small eyes.

      Something with a larger eye would be something like a giant squid, but I’m pretty sure molluscs have far less photoreceptors than vertebrates do!

      The mantis shrimp has the most different types of photoreceptor as far as I’m aware.

    • Photo: David Briggs

      David Briggs answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Probably one that lives somewhere very dark, or needs super keen eyesight to survive.

    • Photo: Susana Teixeira

      Susana Teixeira answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      I do not know!

    • Photo: Sam Horrell

      Sam Horrell answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      I have no idea. Maybe an insect of some type, I imagine their compound lenses have a lot of photoreceptors.

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