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How does the southern bobtail squid see?

Euprymna tasmanica · order Sepiida · Molluscs

The southern bobtail squid has one cone type, so no colour vision in daylight.[1] The southern bobtail squid stops seeing flicker at 30 Hz, against 60 Hz for people.[22]

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  • 1colour receptor classMeasured
  • 30hertz flicker fusion (motion)Estimated

The southern bobtail squid (Euprymna tasmanica) is a mollusc in the order Sepiida. Its eyes belong to the vision type Cephalopod colourblind polarisation: a single visual pigment, so no hue, with polarisation contrast and shaped pupils. 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.

This is a simulation built from published eye measurements, not what the animal experiences.

Method: How we know what animals see (the See Like Animals vision engine) · Sources · Last updated . Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.

What the southern bobtail squid sees: colour receptors

Southern bobtail squid colour receptor peaks, 300 to 700 nmSouthern bobtail squid: 1 receptor peak at 499 nm; you: 3 at 421.5, 532, 558.4 nm. ultraviolet300400500600700
Southern bobtail squid: 499 nmPeople: 421.5, 532, 558.4 nmWavelength in nanometres

What does a southern bobtail squid's vision look like?

The southern bobtail squid has one cone type, so no colour vision in daylight.[1]

Can the southern bobtail squid see colour?

Not in daylight: the southern bobtail squid has one cone type, so it sees brightness but no hue.[1]

Can the southern bobtail squid see in the dark?

The catalogue records rods vs cones: no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors). Night mode in the tool uses these traits by a stated engine rule, not a measured sensitivity.

Does the southern bobtail squid see in slow motion?

The southern bobtail squid stops seeing flicker at 30 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset. So fast motion looks choppier to it than to people, not slower.[22]

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.[23][24]

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. The last column gives the values for people from the same catalogue.

Vision values for the southern bobtail squid (Euprymna tasmanica), catalogue-v1
DialValueEvidenceSourcesPeople
ColourColour receptors
1 receptor class: 499 nm (MWS (green))
measured in this species
Measured[1]Colour receptors: 3 receptor classes: 421.5 nm (VS/SWS (violet)), 532 nm (MWS (green)), 558.4 nm (LWS (long)) Measured (not re-verified)[2][3][4][5]
SharpnessNo value in the catalogue.Acuity: 63.75 cycles per degree Measured[6][7]
Field of viewNo value in the catalogue.Binocular overlap: 122.5° Measured[8][9]
Total field of view: 200° Measured (not re-verified)[10]
Blind area behind the head: 160° Derived[10]
Eye placement: frontal Derived[8][9]
Sharp zones (foveas)No value in the catalogue.Number of foveas: 1 Measured[11]
Fovea type: fovea Measured[11]
Night visionRods vs cones
no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors)		Group defaultActivity pattern: diurnal Measured (not re-verified)[12][13][14][2][15][16][17][18]
Pupil shape: vertical Group default[19][20]
Reflective layer (tapetum): no Measured[21]
Rods vs cones: cone-dominated Derived[12][13][14][2][15][16][17][18]
Motion (flicker fusion)Flicker fusion frequency
30 Hz
group default: median of tier-A values in vision type the "Cephalopod colourblind polarisation" type within phylum Mollusca (1 species: Sepia officinalis)
Group default[22]Flicker fusion frequency: 60 Hz Measured[23][24]

Other senses

  • polarisation vision: optional overlay of degree/angle of linear polarisation (Group default)

Related animals

The same tulips as a common cuttlefish sees them.Common cuttlefishCephalopod colourblind polarisation

More molluscs: all molluscs with measured vision data. Same eye type: Cephalopod colourblind polarisation.

Sources

  1. 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
  2. Longcore T. 2023. A compendium of photopigment peak sensitivities and visual spectral response curves of terrestrial wildlife to guide design of outdoor nighttime lighting. Basic Appl Ecol 73:40-50. doi:10.1016/j.baae.2023.09.002. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8432720
  3. Kirwan J. luxR 0.1.1: Underwater Light Analysis and Visual Ecology (R-universe), data species_sensitivities. github.com/JohnKirwan/luxR
  4. Müller B, Glösmann M, Peichl L, Knop GC, Hagemann C, Ammermüller J (2009) Bat eyes have ultraviolet-sensitive cone photoreceptors. PLoS ONE 4:e6390
  5. Thermal Activation and Photoactivation of Visual Pigments (2004)
  6. Kirk EC, Kay RF 2004. The evolution of high visual acuity in the Anthropoidea. In Anthropoid Origins, Table 1 (behavioural acuity). doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8873-7_20
  7. Veilleux CC, Kirk EC 2014. Visual acuity in mammals. Brain Behav Evol 83:43, Supplementary Table 1 (cleaned CSV in Evo-M1-Trait-Data). doi.org/10.1159/000357830
  8. Heesy CP 2004. On the relationship between orbit orientation and binocular visual field overlap in mammals. Anat Rec 281A:1104, Table 1. doi.org/10.1002/ar.a.20116
  9. Heffner RS, Heffner HE 1992. Visual factors in sound localization in mammals. J Comp Neurol 317:219, Table 1 (via Evo-M1 sensory merge). doi.org/10.1002/cne.903170302
  10. species_v1:Campbell & Green 1965
  11. Kopania EEK, Clark NL. 2025. Mammalian retinal specializations for high acuity vision evolve in response to both foraging strategies and morphological constraints. Evolution Letters 9: qrae072. Supplementary Tables S1-S2.. doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrae072
  12. Anderson SR, Wiens JJ. 2017. Out of the dark: 350 million years of conservatism and evolution in diel activity patterns in vertebrates. Evolution 71:1944-1959. Dryad doi:10.5061/dryad.fg700. doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fg700
  13. Borges R, Johnson WE, O'Brien SJ, Gomes C, Heesy CP, Antunes A (2018) Adaptive genomic evolution of opsins reveals that early mammals flourished in nocturnal environments. BMC Genomics 19:121
  14. Wilman et al. 2014 EltonTraits 1.0, MamFuncDat.txt. doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
  15. Maor R, Dayan T, Ferguson-Gow H, Jones KE. 2017. Temporal niche expansion in mammals from a nocturnal ancestor after dinosaur extinction. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1:1889-1895. Supplementary Table 1. doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0366-5
  16. Jones KE et al. 2009. PanTHERIA: a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals. Ecology 90:2648. Ecological Archives E090-184. doi.org/10.1890/08-1494.1
  17. Schmitz L, Motani R. 2011. Science 332:705-708, SOM. doi.org/10.1126/science.1200043
  18. Moura et al. 2024. A phylogeny-informed characterisation of global tetrapod traits addresses data gaps and biases. PLoS Biol 22:e3002658. TetrapodTraits v3.0.1.. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22536349
  19. Banks MS, Sprague WW, Schmoll J, Parnell JAQ, Love GD. 2015. Science Advances 1:e1500391. doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500391
  20. Cervino NG et al. 2021. A closer look at pupil diversity and evolution in frogs and toads. Proc R Soc B 288:20211402. doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.15112050.v1
  21. Guareschi BLV, Sallum JMF, Salles MV, de Moraes JGO, Bortolini M, Cray C, Moore BA, da Rosa CC, Montiani-Ferreira F. 2025. GUCY2D-Associated Retinopathy: A Comparative Study Between Humans and German Spitz Dogs. Veterinary sciences 12(9):879. doi.org/10.3390/vetsci12090879
  22. species_v1:Bullock et al. 1991 (via Lafitte et al. 2022)
  23. 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
  24. 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). Values were extracted from these works and converted (units, medians, derived values); changes are ours, and the listed sources do not endorse this site. Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this? Method: how we know.