Cuttlefish wearing 3D glasses

Cuttlefish and 3D Vision

cuttlefish wearing 3D glasses
Image from USA Today, attributed to R. Feord

Cuttlefish have better depth perception than humans.  How do we know this?  We know because researchers used grass shrimp treats to bribe some cuttlefish into keeping custom-size 3D glasses on, then studied how they reacted to things.

Researchers made images of tasty shrimps that looked like they had depth, provided the creatures wore the red and green 3D glasses, and had the ability to see in 3D.  The cuttlefish tried to grab at the shrimps, showing that they have depth perception.

Not only do they see in 3D at least as well as we do, but they appear able to ignore certain types of visual patterns that distract and trick human eyes.  They can also rotate their eyes independently of each other.

Their brains are organized differently than ours, so they don't see in the same way we do, and they developed 3D perception independently.  That is, our common ancestor in the way-back times didn't have depth perception; cuttlefish developed it, and so did we, but we took different paths.

Resources:

Scientists Velcroed 3-D Glasses on Cuttlefish to Study their Depth Perception - the Smithsonian