How does the smooth hammerhead shark see?
The smooth hammerhead shark (Sphyrna zygaena) is a shark or ray in the order Carcharhiniformes. Its eyes belong to the vision type Shark, ray and warm-eyed ocean predator.
Measured in this species: sharpness. 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.
What stands out
- It has one receptor class for colour, so it sees brightness but no hue.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 5.59 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- It stops seeing flicker at 29.15 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks choppier to it.[5][6]
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: 534 nm (MWS (green)) receptor set of nearest measured relative Carcharhinus amboinensis (same order Carcharhiniformes) | Group default | [1][2] |
| Sharpness | Acuity 5.59 cycles per degree median of 1 anatomical-ganglion rows (method priority rule) | Measured | [3] |
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Night vision | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 29.15 Hz median of 2 relatives in genus Sphyrna: Sphyrna lewini, Sphyrna tiburo | Estimated | [4] |
Related animals
- Scalloped hammerhead shark same vision type
- Blacknose shark same vision type
- Blacktip reef shark same vision type
- Bonnethead same vision type
- Bull shark same vision type
- Lemon shark same vision type
More sharks and rays: all sharks and rays with measured vision data.
Sources
- Hart NS, Lamb TD, Patel HR et al. 2020. Visual opsin diversity in sharks and rays. Mol Biol Evol 37:811-827. doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msz269
- VPOD in-vivo (MSP / single-cell) lambda max compendium, file scp_cleaned.csv, VPOD GitHub (Frazer et al. 2025 bioRxiv 10.1101/2025.08.22.671864). github.com/VisualPhysiologyDB/visual-physiology-opsin-db/tree/main/scripts_n_notebooks/vpod_ML_workflows/mine_n_match/data_sources/lmax/vpod
- Claes JM et al. 2014. Photon hunting in the twilight zone: visual features of mesopelagic bioluminescent sharks. PLoS ONE 9:e104213, Dataset S1. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0104213
- Lafitte A, Sordello R, Legrand M, Nicolas V, Obein G, Reyjol Y. 2022. A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279718. S10 File (CFF database). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279718
- 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?