And not all eyes animals' glow the same color. Powell says this is due to different substances — like riboflavin or zinc — in an animal's tapetum. "Also," she says, ...

As a result, animals see better at night by double-dipping their light. They can process the light coming inward through their eyes, but also get the information as it goes back outwards. Our primary ...

The net effect or benefit for the animal is that the retina has two opportunities to receive the light, once when it is incident and next when the tapetum lucidum sends it back. As a result, the ...

When we hear that reindeer eyes change color, most of us think of the iris—the colored part of the eye. While reindeer ...

One of the most distinguishing features of cats is how their eyes can glow in the dark. If you’re sitting with one at home and the light catches their eyes just right, it can seem as if a flash ...

Dr. DJ Haeussler, a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist at The Animal Eye Institute in Ohio, explained in the PetMD article that feline eyes glow "when light is shined at them due to a ...

The secret behind the glowing eyes is a structure called the tapetum lucidum. ... This reflection through the eye produces the yellow glow we see when looking at the animal’s eyes.

In the summer, when the animals’ eyes shine gold, the tapetum’s fibers are packed loosely, giving the collagen “quite good reflectivity over a wide range of wavelengths,” jibing well with ...

Family tree of ‘octocorals’ pushes origin of bioluminescence back to 540 million years ago, when the first animal species developed eyes. Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature.com.