Small prey fish can grow a bigger ‘eye’ on their rear fins
as a way of distracting predators and dramatically boosting their chances of
survival, new scientific research has found.
Researchers from Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for
Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) have made a world-first discovery that, when
constantly threatened with being eaten, small damsel fish not only grow a
larger false ‘eye spot’ near their tail – but also reduce the size of their
real eyes.