How does the hammer octopus see?
The hammer octopus (Octopus australis) is a mollusc in the order Octopoda. Its eyes belong to the vision type Cephalopod colourblind polarisation.
Measured in this species: colour. Measured colour or sharpness: a measured receptor set or acuity in this species; other dials come from relatives or group defaults. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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What stands out
- It has one receptor class for colour, so it sees brightness but no hue.
- It stops seeing flicker at 30 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks choppier to it.[3][4]
The six dials
Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 1 receptor class: 485 nm (MWS (green)) measured in this species | Measured | [1] |
| Sharpness | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Night vision | Rods vs cones no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors) | Group default | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 30 Hz group default: median of tier-A values in vision type V28 within phylum Mollusca (1 species: Sepia officinalis) | Group default | [2] |
Other senses
- polarisation vision: optional overlay of degree/angle of linear polarisation (Group default)
Related animals
- Common octopus same vision type
- Gloomy octopus same vision type
- Gold-spot octopus same vision type
- Long arm octopus same vision type
- Musky octopus same vision type
- North Pacific giant octopus same vision type
More molluscs: all molluscs with measured vision data.
Sources
- Chung W, Marshall N 2016. Comparative visual ecology of cephalopods from different habitats. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.1346
- species_v1:Bullock et al. 1991 (via Lafitte et al. 2022)
- Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
- Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?