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Mantis shrimp detect red light with a layered optical system rather than a single “red receptor.” Long-wavelength rhodopsins absorb incoming photons, while carotenoid pigments placed in front of selected photoreceptors filter that light. The filter’s density and spectrum determine which wavelengths reach each rhodopsin. A 2025 preprint adds a second, molecular form of tuning: several blue- and red-sensitive opsins can shift their absorption spectra in opposite directions when exposed to light, a process the authors describe as photoreversibility.
The result is regional, adjustable sensitivity that can extend into far-red wavelengths. It does not mean every part of a mantis shrimp eye sees the same spectrum, or that the animal experiences a human-like palette with many extra colors.
What “seeing red” means in a mantis shrimp
In a vertebrate eye, a photopigment combines an opsin protein with a light-sensitive retinal molecule. Mantis shrimp use the same broad principle, but distribute many specialized receptors across distinct eye regions. Their compound eyes include a central strip called the midband, divided into rows with different receptor arrangements, plus peripheral regions with their own sensitivities.
Red detection therefore has three separate meanings:
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- Optical sensitivity: a receptor absorbs relatively long wavelengths.
- Regional sensitivity: a particular midband row or peripheral receptor is tuned to those wavelengths.
- Behavioral use: the animal responds to a red or orange signal in a controlled experiment.
Those levels should not be collapsed into a claim that the whole eye sees red uniformly. Comparative measurements across 12 gonodactyloid species found that different receptor classes occupy different spectral positions, with specialized polarization rows staying near 500 nanometres while peripheral receptors shift toward shorter peak wavelengths in deeper water (Cronin et al., 2000).
The two tuning layers: rhodopsins and carotenoid filters
Rhodopsins absorb the photons
A rhodopsin is the light-absorbing protein in a photoreceptor. Its amino-acid structure and its retinal-binding pocket determine the wavelengths it absorbs most efficiently. A receptor with a long-wavelength rhodopsin can respond to orange, red or far-red photons, depending on the position and width of its absorption curve.
Rhodopsin alone does not explain the mantis shrimp’s fine spectral organization. Several receptors can use related visual-pigment classes while still receiving different light spectra because optical filters sit in front of them.
Carotenoids act like wavelength-selective filters
Mantis shrimp place carotenoid pigments in front of selected photoreceptors. These pigments absorb some wavelengths before they reach the rhodopsin, reshaping the light that remains. A filter can suppress shorter wavelengths, narrow a receptor’s response, or move its effective peak toward the long-wavelength side.
In the long-wavelength receptors of Haptosquilla trispinosa, filters vary between animals and individually tune the receptors. The work by Cronin, Caldwell and Marshall showed that homologous receptors do not have to carry different rhodopsin proteins to produce different spectral sensitivities; changing the filter is enough to alter the light delivered to each receptor (Nature, 2001).
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Filter tuning is an optical adjustment, not a claim that the animal consciously changes a color setting. It changes the photons available to the receptor before neural processing begins.
Where red sensitivity is located
Midband rows are specialized
The midband is divided into rows, and each row contains a characteristic combination of photoreceptors and filters. In Hemisquilla californiensis, behavioral experiments connected some midband rows with orange and red sensitivity. Peripheral regions, by contrast, supported broader monochromatic object detection in the same study (Cronin and colleagues).
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This arrangement lets different parts of one eye sample different portions of the underwater spectrum. A mantis shrimp can direct a relevant eye region toward a stimulus, while separate neural pathways handle information from different rows. It is more accurate to describe the eye as a set of narrow, overlapping spectral channels than as one camera with a single color sensor.
Red is not the same as infrared
The behavioral study above reported no responses to infrared stimuli in its assay (Hemisquilla study). That result places a useful boundary on popular claims: documented red and far-red sensitivity should not be presented as infrared vision. “Far-red” refers to the long-wavelength edge of visible light, whereas infrared begins at still longer wavelengths.
What the reversible pigments do
The 2025 preprint’s molecular result
A 2025 preprint reports 17 opsins involved in color sensing and signaling. Two mid-wavelength opsins preferentially absorb blue light, most of the long-wavelength opsins absorb in green, and three reported opsins absorb beyond 600 nanometres, extending measured sensitivity into the far-red region (Brouillon et al., 2025 preprint).
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Several of the blue and red opsins showed photoreversibility: illumination produced a spectral shift, and a different light exposure could drive an opposite shift. The authors explain the behavior through interactions between retinal and its binding site in the opsin. In practical terms, the protein’s light-absorbing state can be moved toward a different wavelength and then moved back, rather than being permanently replaced by another gene product.
The study’s summary describes the system this way: “Row-specific spectral sensitivity results from combining carotenoid filters with multiple individually-tuned rhodopsins, altogether extending broad vision to the far-red spectrum.” The quotation applies to the combined optical system, not to every receptor or every eye region.
Reversible does not mean instant color switching
Photoreversibility is a molecular property measured under experimental illumination. It should not be interpreted as a continuously adjustable dial that an animal consciously operates. The speed, extent and ecological role of each shift require separate measurements, and the 2025 result remains a preprint rather than a peer-reviewed article.
How depth changes the filters
Water removes light selectively. As depth increases, the available spectrum generally becomes poorer in long wavelengths and shifts toward blue-green light. Mantis shrimp living at different depths therefore face different illumination even when they possess homologous receptor classes.
Comparative work across three species found that the visual-pigment classes were consistent within a species, while filter density and filter spectrum changed with depth. Those changes increased sensitivity and retuned long-wavelength receptors for the bluer deep-water environment (Cronin and colleagues, 2002).
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The broader comparison of 12 gonodactyloid species found the expected movement toward shorter peak wavelengths in peripheral receptors as habitat depth increased. Specialized polarization rows remained close to 500 nanometres instead of following the same shift (Cronin et al., 2000). This combination of stable receptor classes and variable filters gives the eye a way to retain a recognizable design while matching local light conditions.
How the mechanisms fit together
| Layer | What changes | Where it operates | What the evidence establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rhodopsin | Protein and retinal-binding interactions set an absorption spectrum | Inside each photoreceptor | Multiple individually tuned rhodopsins contribute to row-specific sensitivity |
| Carotenoid filter | Density and spectral shape remove selected wavelengths | Optically in front of selected receptors | Variable filters tune long-wavelength receptors between animals and with depth |
| Eye region | Receptor and filter combinations differ by row or peripheral area | Midband and peripheral retina | Orange/red sensitivity is associated with particular midband rows, not the whole eye |
| Neural processing | Signals from separate receptor groups are handled by distinct pathways | Downstream visual system | Review and behavioral literature describe narrow, region-specific channels |
What experiments actually measure
Different studies answer different parts of the question. Keeping their evidence types separate prevents overstatement.
Optical measurements
Microspectrophotometry and related measurements estimate the wavelength at which a receptor or pigment absorbs most strongly. They can identify long-wavelength rhodopsins, carotenoid absorption bands and shifts caused by filters. Such measurements establish what light reaches a receptor, not what a mantis shrimp subjectively experiences.
Behavioral tests
Behavioral experiments train or observe an animal responding to stimuli at selected wavelengths. In the Hemisquilla work, responses associated with orange and red were linked to particular midband rows, while infrared stimuli produced no response in the reported assay (behavioral study). A behavioral result is stronger evidence that the animal can use a wavelength in a task, but it still depends on the task, stimulus intensity and training protocol.
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Opsin sequencing and protein experiments reveal which visual pigments exist and how their absorption can change. The 2025 preprint’s 17-opsin inventory and photoreversible shifts are molecular findings (Brouillon et al., 2025 preprint). They expand the possible optical repertoire but do not, by themselves, prove a particular color judgment in a free-swimming animal.
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A practical way to compare mantis shrimp visual systems
When two species or eye regions are compared, use the same five axes:
- Receptor peak wavelength: record the measured absorption maximum, not a broad label such as “red vision.”
- Filter type and density: note which carotenoid is present and how strongly it attenuates incoming light.
- Eye region or midband row: identify the exact row or peripheral area; do not generalize a row’s result to the entire eye.
- Habitat depth and ambient spectrum: account for the underwater light field in which the animal lives.
- Evidence type: distinguish optical measurement, molecular spectroscopy and behavioral performance.
This framework also separates spectral sensitivity from subjective color experience. A receptor can respond to a wavelength without the animal representing it as a distinct color in the human sense.
Why many receptors do not automatically mean more human-like colors
Mantis shrimp are often described as having an unusually large number of photoreceptors. That fact alone does not establish a simple “more cones equals more colors” relationship. Their receptors are arranged in narrow, region-specific channels, and separate neural processing can route those channels toward tasks such as object detection, polarization analysis or wavelength discrimination.
Review literature emphasizes that receptor diversity, eye movements and neural computation all matter when interpreting color vision (review literature). The animal may use many spectral channels as rapid detectors or as labels for ecologically important signals rather than combining them into a human-style color space. The available evidence supports broad ultraviolet-to-far-red sensitivity across receptor classes, but not a demonstrated inventory of extra subjective colors.
What remains unresolved
- The 2025 opsin findings are reported in a preprint and may be refined as peer review and additional experiments proceed.
- Laboratory demonstrations of photoreversible spectral shifts do not yet specify how often each shift occurs in natural lighting.
- Neural wiring, eye movements and task-specific behavior determine how receptor signals are combined.
- Far-red absorption beyond 600 nanometres is documented for three reported opsins, but this is not evidence of infrared vision.
- Filter changes with depth show ecological tuning, while the molecular reversibility of opsins is a separate mechanism; the two should not be treated as interchangeable.
The complete light path, step by step
- Light enters the compound eye and reaches a particular midband row or peripheral region.
- A carotenoid filter absorbs part of the spectrum before the light reaches the photoreceptor.
- The remaining wavelengths interact with the receptor’s rhodopsin and retinal chromophore.
- The rhodopsin converts absorbed photons into a neural signal.
- In some opsins, illumination can alter retinal-binding interactions and shift the absorption spectrum in a reversible direction.
- Signals from that row travel through region-specific neural pathways, where they can support wavelength discrimination, object detection or polarization-related tasks.
That sequence explains both halves of the phenomenon: filters provide optical, ecological tuning, while reversible opsins provide a molecular way to alter spectral absorption. Together they let different parts of the eye remain sensitive to distinct portions of the underwater spectrum, including documented red and far-red wavelengths.
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