How does the ornate reef seasnake see?
The ornate reef seasnake (Hydrophis ornatus) is a reptile in the order not recorded. Its eyes belong to the vision type Diurnal reptile tetrachromat.
Measured in this species: colour and night vision. Measured colour or sharpness: a measured receptor set or acuity in this species; other dials come from relatives or group defaults. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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What stands out
- It has three colour receptor classes, like most people, but one of them sees ultraviolet.
- It stops seeing flicker at 34.6 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks choppier to it.[9][10]
- Activity pattern: cathemeral.
The six dials
Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 3 receptor classes: 359 nm (UVS), 459 nm (SWS (blue)), 551 nm (LWS (long)) measured in this species | Measured | [1][2] |
| Ultraviolet yes: at least one receptor peaks in the ultraviolet | Measured | ||
| Sharpness | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | Number of foveas 2 mode of species-v1 relatives in class Squamata: Anolis carolinensis, Furcifer pardalis | Group default | [3][4] |
| Fovea type central fovea, temporal | Group default | [3][4] | |
| Night vision | Activity pattern cathemeral tie ['cathemeral', 'diurnal', 'nocturnal'] broken by the broader category (round-3 tie-break rule 3: cathemeral > crepuscular > nocturnal > diurnal) (of 3 rows): Cathemeral; diurnal; nocturnal | Measured (not re-verified) | [5][6][7] |
| Rods vs cones mixed nocturnal -> rod-dominated; crepuscular / cathemeral / mixed -> mixed; diurnal -> cone-dominated | Derived | [5][6][7] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 34.6 Hz median of 15 relatives in class Squamata: Phrynosoma cornutum, Sphaerodactylus inaguae, Anolis cristatellus, Anolis gundlachi, Anolis pulchellus, Iguana iguana | Group default | [8][9][10][11] |
Related animals
- Green anole same vision type
- Red-eared slider same vision type
- Anole lizards (Anolis cristatellus) same vision type
- Anole lizards (Anolis grahami) same vision type
- Anole lizards (Anolis gundlachi) same vision type
- Anole lizards (Anolis lineatopus) same vision type
More reptiles: all reptiles with measured vision data.
Sources
- Longcore T. 2023. A compendium of photopigment peak sensitivities and visual spectral response curves of terrestrial wildlife to guide design of outdoor nighttime lighting. Basic Appl Ecol 73:40-50. doi:10.1016/j.baae.2023.09.002. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8432720
- Frazer SA, Baghalian M, et al. 2024. Discovering genotype-phenotype relationships with machine learning and the Visual Physiology Opsin Database (VPOD). GigaScience 13:giae073; VPOD v1.3 data release. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19051998
- species_v1:Fleishman et al. 1988 / Makaretz & Levine 1980
- species_v1:Ott & Schaeffel 1995
- Anderson SR, Wiens JJ. 2017. Out of the dark: 350 million years of conservatism and evolution in diel activity patterns in vertebrates. Evolution 71:1944-1959. Dryad doi:10.5061/dryad.fg700. doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fg700
- Meiri 2024. SquamBase: a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecol Biogeogr (data Zenodo 10602503).. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10602503
- Moura et al. 2024. A phylogeny-informed characterisation of global tetrapod traits addresses data gaps and biases. PLoS Biol 22:e3002658. TetrapodTraits v3.0.1.. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22536349
- Haarlem CS, Hynes C, Jackson AL, Mitchell KJ, O'Connell RG, Healy K. 2026. Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom. Nature Ecology & Evolution (doi:10.1038/s41559-026-02994-7). Figshare dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.30556475. doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30556475
- Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
- Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631
- Lafitte A, Sordello R, Legrand M, Nicolas V, Obein G, Reyjol Y. 2022. A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279718. S10 File (CFF database). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279718
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?