Showing posts with label eyes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eyes. Show all posts

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Unmoveable Owl Eyes

Owls are unable to move their eyes in the sockets because of the size and tubular shape.

 Picture from The Sunny Girl

To compensate the fact that they are unable to move their sockets, they have a long flexible neck which enables them to turn their head 270° in either direction horizontally and at least 90° vertically. 

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A Full Night's Rest?

Don’t ever mess with dolphins when they’re asleep: They sleep with one eye open! They rest in a state of unihemispheric sleep, which means that only half of their brain sleeps at a time while the other half stays awake. Throughout a sleep cycle, dolphins will alternate sleep between both sides of the brain, opening and closing each eye whenever the change occurs. Part of them has to be conscious at all times because dolphins are conscious breathers. If they lost complete consciousness during sleep, like humans do, they would suffocate or drown. When they do sleep, they float at the surface of the water with — amazingly enough —one eye wide open.