A new study by the University of Queensland has found that the Ambon Damselfish (Pomacentrus amboinensis) uses a type of UV vision to identify and communicate with other fish via unique facial patterns. Researchers believe this to be the first example of any animal discriminating based on UV patterns using only their short wavelength, or UV [...]
A new study by the University of Queensland has found that the Ambon Damselfish (Pomacentrus amboinensis) uses a type of UV vision to identify and communicate with other fish via unique facial patterns. Researchers believe this to be the first example of any animal discriminating based on UV patterns using only their short wavelength, or UV cones. Researchers also speculating that these markings can be used as a disguised channel of communication, as the markings would be invisible to the Ambon’s predators.
Dr. Ulrike Sieback and his team stumbled across these UV facial markings, shown above, and became curiously fixated on their use. After a series of controlled experiments with male P. amboinensis and other male damselfish, they found that their well known aggressive and territorial behavior only occurred when these UV facial markings were visible. Additionally the research team found they could illicit similar responses using images of specific facial markings, demonstrating the fish were in fact reacting to the specific shapes and patterns.
In the paper that was recently published in Current Biology, Dr. Sieback writes, “Differences between patterns on the faces of individuals suggest that Ambon damselfish may also be able to use the patterns for the discrimination of individuals, in a manner directly comparable to the face-based recognition of individuals performed by humans….This ability to see in the ultraviolet seems to have been retained in some coral reef fishes, whereas carnivorous fish and many higher animals – including humans – seem to have lost it.”
This also means some fish like the Ambon Damselfish likely see coral reefs in even more technicolor splendor than we do. Dr. Sieback equates the UV vision of some fish to that of colorblindness in humans. It begs the question, how do these already beautiful fish really look?
[vision]
