Scientists find answer to why reindeer eyes turn blue during winter season

[Missing User]

[url]http://www.livescience.com/40813-rei...in-winter.html[/url]
[QUOTE]
Reindeer may be best known for fictional Rudolph's glowing red nose, but now scientists find the animals can alter color elsewhere as well — the backs of their eyeballs change from gold in the summer to blue in the winter.

This change in color helps reindeer eyes capture more light during the dark winter months in the Arctic, scientists added.

Neuroscientist Glen Jeffery, who investigates vision at University College London, was sent a collection of reindeer eyes from the Arctic 12 years ago, some from reindeer killed in the summer, some in the winter.

[IMG]http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/058/638/original/reindeer-eyes.jpg?1383146232[/IMG]

"I opened the eyes up on my lab bench and almost fell off my chair," Jeffery said. "The differences were so dramatic, and I knew no one had ever seen anything like that before. However, it has taken us 12 years to slowly find out what is going on and why."

The scientists investigated a reflective layer behind the retina of the reindeer's eyes. The retina, located on the back of the eyeball, contains the eye's light-sensitive cells.

The color of the light reflected by reindeer eyes is related to the spacing of collagen fibers in the reflective layer, technically known as the tapetum lucidum.
Reindeer apparently increase pressure inside the eyeball during the winter to compress these fibers together, and reducing the spacing between these fibers makes the eyes reflect bluer light.

"No one has ever seen anything like this in a mammal before, let alone such a large shift," Jeffery said.

By Charles Q. Choi, 30th October 2013
[/QUOTE]

[Wizards Court]

i didn't even knew they could change their eye color.

[Aksi]

Weird, never heard of this and I live in the land of the reindeer.

[Kickin Balls]

[QUOTE=Aksi;42774381]Weird, never heard of this and I live in the land of the reindeer.[/QUOTE]

you live in the north pole wtf?

[booster]

[QUOTE=Kickin Balls;42774538]you live in the north pole wtf?[/QUOTE]

All Finns are direct descendants of Santa.

You could say Ms. Santa is quite the [I]ho ho ho[/I]

[Kickin Balls]

[QUOTE=booster;42774575]All Finns are direct descendants of Santa.

You could say Ms. Santa is quite the [I]ho ho ho[/I][/QUOTE]

Ho ho...oh :(

[xianlee]

Wish this happened to us, It'd be amazing.

[Maxumym]

[QUOTE=xianlee;42774730]Wish this happened to us, It'd be amazing.[/QUOTE]

But human eyes change their hue slightly sometimes, don't they?

[Levinx]

Don't they understand? It's the Christmas Magic that glows in their eyes! MAGIC!

[Zambies!]

[img]http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/058/638/original/reindeer-eyes.jpg?1383146232[/img]

NO NOT RUDOLPH NOOOO :(

[Task Manager]

[QUOTE=Zambies!;42774997][img]http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/058/638/original/reindeer-eyes.jpg?1383146232[/img]
[/QUOTE]

Those are some really pretty colours

[octopod]

those colors look like galaxies you see in space

[Rangergxi]

If I had heard this before I would have just assumed that it was the Christmas spirit flooding into them.

[shian]

Time to gouge out my eyes for Reindeer ones. Finally I can have the eyes of a Aryan person!