Skip to main content
Commonmark migration
Source Link

###Yes

Yes

The non-TL;DR version: It all comes down to photoreceptors

Better night vision can be a mix of several things: foveal acuity, tapetum lucidum, and available visual spectrum are the ones that easily come to mind. Foveal acuity could easily be selected for, whether naturally or through selective breeding. The tapetum lucidum assists night vision via retroreflection

The bottom line is that without light in the visual spectrum, you'll need to look elsewhere (pun intended). UV light largely gets absorbed by the atmosphere, but more importantly there won't be nearly as much present at nighttime.

That leaves infrared, which quite a few animals can sense, so evolutionary pressures can select for IR photoreceptors. Since some animals lose their eyes on evolutionary timescales, it's not unreasonable that others might lose a vestigial photoreceptor, causing species-wide tritanopia

###Yes

The non-TL;DR version: It all comes down to photoreceptors

Better night vision can be a mix of several things: foveal acuity, tapetum lucidum, and available visual spectrum are the ones that easily come to mind. Foveal acuity could easily be selected for, whether naturally or through selective breeding. The tapetum lucidum assists night vision via retroreflection

The bottom line is that without light in the visual spectrum, you'll need to look elsewhere (pun intended). UV light largely gets absorbed by the atmosphere, but more importantly there won't be nearly as much present at nighttime.

That leaves infrared, which quite a few animals can sense, so evolutionary pressures can select for IR photoreceptors. Since some animals lose their eyes on evolutionary timescales, it's not unreasonable that others might lose a vestigial photoreceptor, causing species-wide tritanopia

Yes

The non-TL;DR version: It all comes down to photoreceptors

Better night vision can be a mix of several things: foveal acuity, tapetum lucidum, and available visual spectrum are the ones that easily come to mind. Foveal acuity could easily be selected for, whether naturally or through selective breeding. The tapetum lucidum assists night vision via retroreflection

The bottom line is that without light in the visual spectrum, you'll need to look elsewhere (pun intended). UV light largely gets absorbed by the atmosphere, but more importantly there won't be nearly as much present at nighttime.

That leaves infrared, which quite a few animals can sense, so evolutionary pressures can select for IR photoreceptors. Since some animals lose their eyes on evolutionary timescales, it's not unreasonable that others might lose a vestigial photoreceptor, causing species-wide tritanopia

Source Link
Punintended
  • 1.3k
  • 9
  • 9

###Yes

The non-TL;DR version: It all comes down to photoreceptors

Better night vision can be a mix of several things: foveal acuity, tapetum lucidum, and available visual spectrum are the ones that easily come to mind. Foveal acuity could easily be selected for, whether naturally or through selective breeding. The tapetum lucidum assists night vision via retroreflection

The bottom line is that without light in the visual spectrum, you'll need to look elsewhere (pun intended). UV light largely gets absorbed by the atmosphere, but more importantly there won't be nearly as much present at nighttime.

That leaves infrared, which quite a few animals can sense, so evolutionary pressures can select for IR photoreceptors. Since some animals lose their eyes on evolutionary timescales, it's not unreasonable that others might lose a vestigial photoreceptor, causing species-wide tritanopia