How Starfish See With Eyespots

How Starfish See With Eyespots Starfish, which are more scientifically known as sea stars,  dont have any visible body parts that look like eyes. So how do they see? While it may not look like starfish have eyes, they do, although theyre not like our eyes. A starfish has eyespots that cannot see much in the way of details but can detect light and dark. These eyespots are at the tip of each of the starfishs arms. That means that a 5-armed starfish has five eyespots, and a 40-armed starfish has 40! How to See a Starfishs Eyespots A starfishs eyespots lie underneath its skin, but you can see them. If you get a chance to gently hold a starfish, often it will tilt the end of its arms upward. Look at the very tip, and you might see a black  or red dot. Thats the eyespot. Cartoons that portray starfish with a face with eyes in the center of their body are therefore inaccurate. A starfish is actually looking at you with its arms, not from the center of its body. Its just easier for cartoonists to portray them that way. Structure of the Sea Star Eye The eye of a sea star is very small. On a blue star, they are only about half a millimeter wide. They have a groove on the underside of each arm that has the tube feet that stars use to move. The eye is made of a couple hundred light-collecting units and is located at the end of one of the tube feet on each arm. It is a compound eye like that of an insect, but it doesnt have a lens to focus the light. This reduces its ability to see anything but light, dark, and large structures such as the coral reef it needs to live on. What Sea Stars Can See Sea stars cant detect color. They dont have the color-detecting cones that human eyes do, so they are colorblind and see only light and dark. They also cant see fast-moving objects as their eyes work slowly. If something swims by them fast, they simply wont detect it. They cant see any details because they have so few light-detecting cells. Experiments have shown they can detect large structures, and even that was a surprise for scientists, who for a long time thought they could only see light and dark. Each eye of the sea star has a large field of vision. If all of their eyes werent blocked, they could see for 360 degrees around themselves. They could probably limit their field of vision using their other tube feet on each arm as blinders. Sea stars likely see just enough to be able to get to where they want to be, on a rock or coral reef where they can feed.

What Happened to Shakespeares Skull

What Happened to Shakespeares Skull An examination of William Shakespeare’s  grave  in March 2016 suggested that the body is missing its head and that Shakespeare’s skull may have been removed by trophy hunters some 200 years ago. However, this is just one interpretation of the evidence found in this excavation. What really happened to Shakespeares skull is still up for debate, but we do now have some important evidence concerning the famous playwrights grave. Shakespeare’s Grave For four centuries, William Shakespeare’s  grave sat undisturbed underneath the chancel floor of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. But a new investigation conducted in 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, has finally revealed what lies beneath. The church has never allowed an excavation of the grave- despite many appeals from researchers over the centuries- because they wanted to abide by Shakespeare’s wishes. His wishes were made crystal clear in the inscription carved into the ledger stone above his grave: Good friend, for Jesus sake forebeare, To digg the dust enclosed heare; Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, And curst be he that moves my bones. But the curse is not the only unusual thing about Shakespeare’s grave. Two more curious facts have bothered researches for hundreds of years: No name:  Of the family members buried side by side, William Shakespeare’s ledger stone is the only one that doesn’t carry a name.Short grave:  The stone itself is too short for a grave. At less than a meter in length, William’s ledger stone is shorter than the others, including that of his wife, Anne Hathaway. What Lies Beneath Shakespeare’s Tombstone? The year 2016 saw the first archaeological investigation of Shakespeare’s grave using GPR scanning to produce images of what lies beneath the ledger stones without the need to disturb the grave itself. The results have disproved some firmly held beliefs about Shakespeare’s burial. These break down into four areas: Shallow graves: It has long been asserted that the Shakespeare ledger stones covered a family tomb or vault beneath. No such structure exists. Rather there is nothing more than a series of five shallow graves, each aligned with the corresponding ledger stone in the chancel floor of the church.No coffin: Shakespeare was not buried in a coffin. Rather, the family members were buried simply in winding sheets or a similar material.Disruption at the head: Shakespeare’s mysteriously short ledger stone corresponds to a repair that has been made underneath the stone floor to support it. Experts suggest that this is due to disturbance at the head end of the grave which has caused significantly more subsidence  than elsewhere.Interference:  The tests conclusively proved that Shakespeare’s grave is not in its original state. Stealing Shakespeares Skull The findings correspond to a rather incredulous tale first published in an 1879 edition of the Argosy Magazine. In the story, Frank Chambers agrees to steal Shakespeare’s skull for a wealthy collector for the sum of 300 guineas. He hires a gang of grave robbers to assist him. The story has always been disregarded because of the (presumed) inaccurate details of the actual digging of the grave in 1794: The men had dug to the depth of three feet, and I now watched narrowly, for, by the clogging of the darker earth, and that peculiar humid state–small I can hardly call it... I know we were nearing the level where the body had formerly mouldered.No shovels but the hands, I whispered, and feel for a skull.There was a long pause as the fellows, sinking in the loose mould, slid their horny palms over fragments of bone. Presently, I got him, said Cull; but he’s fine and heavy.† In light of the new GPR evidence, the details above suddenly seemed remarkably accurate. The established theory up until 2016 was that Shakespeare was buried in a tomb in a coffin. So the following specifics in this story have piqued the interest of archaeologists: Details of the shallow three-foot graveDetails of the body buried directly in the earth with no coffinDetails of soil disruption at the head end of the grave Where Is Shakespeares Skull Today? So if there is truth in this story, then where is Shakespeare’s skull now? A follow-up story suggests that Chambers panicked and attempted to hide the skull in St. Leonards Church in Beoley. As part of the 2016 investigation, the so-called â€Å"Beoley skull† was examined and â€Å"on the balance of probability† was thought to be the skull of a 70-year old woman. Somewhere out there, the skull of William Shakespeare, if it has actually disappeared, may still exist. But where? With intensified archaeological interest sparked by the 2016 GPR scans, this has become one of the big historical mysteries and the hunt for Shakespeare’s skull is now well and truly on.