The things we do for science. See, cuttlefish have eyes that move independently of each other so that they can see all around them. The question was: can they use stereopsis? That is, do they judge depth and distance by merging the different views of their two eyes when focusing on prey? The method was to get them to watch 3D movies, which meant getting them to wear the glasses.
Not that every step went smoothly. Attempts to glue the glasses directly on to the molluscs left some at jaunty angles and risked skin damage when the cuttlefish reached up with their arms – of which they have eight – to pull them off. That was solved with a superglued velcro strip that the glasses then attached to.
The glasses posed another hurdle, however. “The first ones that wrapped around caught too much water, so if the cuttlefish swam backwards, the glasses would fly off,” Wardill said.
But with tenacity, the scientists overcame the problems. The cuttlefish – whose names included Supersandy, Long Arms, Inky and Sylvester Stallone – were ready to be trained and tested.
They were tested by watching movies of tasty shrimp in an underwater theater. Read about the research and the results at the Guardian. -via Damn Interesting