Snakes’ heat vision enables accurate attacks on prey

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The head of this pit viper shows a nostril pit hole and eye (left to right). In the sketch at right radiation enters the pit organ and hits a heat-sensitive membrane. Because point-like objects spread out into disc-shaped images on the membrane image ...
The head of this pit viper shows a nostril, pit hole and eye (left to right). In the sketch at right, radiation enters the pit organ and hits a heat-sensitive membrane. Because point-like objects spread out into disc-shaped images on the membrane, images are blurry. Scientists recently found that edge detectors in the brain must reconstruct the heat distribution from blurry images to inform the snake of greater detail of its surroundings. Image credit: Sichert, Andreas, et al.
Call it a sixth sense, or evolution’s gift to these cold-blooded reptiles: some snakes have infrared vision. Also called “heat vision,” the infrared rays, which have longer wavelengths than those of visible light, signify the presence of warm-blooded prey in 3 dimensions, which helps snakes aim their attacks. Pit vipers and boids, the two snake types that possess this ability, have heat-sensitive membranes that can detect the difference in temperature between a moving prey—such as a running mouse—and its surroundings on the scale of milliKelvins.


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