• Zink@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    6 days ago

    Turtles are kind of in between with their wedge-shaped heads. They need the awareness to hide from predators, but some of them are also predators themselves or they at least snap at fruits and veggies to eat them.

    Here’s my tortoise doing his best disappointed-in-you baby yoda:

    And here’s the yellow belly slider locking target on to some shrimp.

    But it sounds like the rules aren’t as consistent in the water, judging from other comments. Even something like an alligator snapping turtle’s eyes are no further forward than these pics.

  • mr_account@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    8 days ago

    Last time I saw this kind of comment/meme someone pointed out that dragons are usually depicted with eyes on the sides of their head. What hunts them, I wonder

  • Zerush@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    edit-2
    8 days ago

    It’s not the question if the eyes on the side or in the front, it’s about the capability to be able to focusing on a stereoscopic vision to be able to calculate the distances to the prey or not. Side eyes increase the field of vision, which can be advantageous for fleeing animals, but does not exclude that predators can also use it to strategically locate themselves better in the environment. But it is true that animals with frontal vision are generally predatory.

    Well…

    • flora_explora@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      8 days ago

      They also have to orient themselves in a truely 3D landscape, unlike terrestrial predators who hunt on basically a 2D plane. Birds of prey (with the exception of owls) also don’t have front-facing eyes, probably for similar reasons* (and they’re stereoscopic vision also works a bit different I think with very different points of focus).

      *see comments below

        • flora_explora@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          8 days ago

          Haha, I’m not a bird person and didn’t bother to look it up. Thanks for the correction!

          Although they still don’t look fully front-facing like e.g. in cats, right?

          • Zerush@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            edit-2
            7 days ago

            Well, better as front-faces, the capability to focus on a point in front, since a 3D vision is essential for a predator, to be able to accurately calculate distances. Insects and arthropods often combine side and frontal vision, if they are predators, obtaining a vision in practically 360º, for example dragonflies and also jumping spiders or hunters, these usually have two large eyes in front and 6 smaller side eyes. Chameleons solve this with eyes that can move independently, only focusing on the front before the attack. In small animals a wide field of vision is necessary, even if they are predators, since they themselves appear on the menu of others.

            • flora_explora@beehaw.org
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              7 days ago

              Hm, in small animals my previous point of a 2D vs 3D space is also valid. Large land prey animals “only” have to look from side to side to spot predators. Small animals have to look in all 3 dimensions, like sharks

    • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      7 days ago

      There are lots of reasons to have binocular frontal vision. Redundancy, differing info for optic flow, sensitivity, reducing the frontal blind spot, compensating for retinal blind spots, higher frontal resulution, seeing around things, depth perception…

      Most of there are good for predators, but predation isn’t the only reason to have them.

  • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    7 days ago

    Is it actually possible for a fish-like animal to have eyes at the front (i.e. an animal with a hydrodynamic shape that spends all its time underwater)?

    I feel like that’s really difficult for evolution to achieve, especially because the mouth has to go somewhere at the front too. I mean, look at where the lights of a high-speed train are placed and their shape.

    Intuitively it feels easier to just put the eyes on the side. Plus it feels like there’s a lower risk of damaging them when bumping into something.

  • zeca@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    8 days ago

    Being a predator is not a property, its a relation. X is a predator of Y… but not of Z, and is a prey of V and not of W.