Wednesday August 23, 2023
Science Daily —
A common fish in the western Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina to Brazil, the hogfish is known for its color-changing skin. The species can morph from white to mottled to reddish-brown in a matter of milliseconds to blend in with corals, sand or rocks.
Still, Schweikert was surprised because this hogfish had continued its camouflage even though it was no longer alive. Which got her wondering: can hogfish detect light using only their skin, independently of their eyes and brain?
“That opened up this whole field for me,” Schweikert said.
In the years that followed, Schweikert started researching the physiology of “skin vision” as a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University and Florida International University.