Why have eyes when most of the ocean is so dark? For a variety of unexpected reasons, many plankton have evolved one eye, two eyes, three eyes, or more. And they don’t always stay in one spot.

Hey, teachers! Here’s a cheat sheet of what’s included in this episode of Microworlds:
- Different types of eyes (eye spots, compound eyes), evolution of eyes
- Life cycles and stages
- Adaptation to the environment, migration, reproduction
- Barnacles, flatfish, squat lobster, red-eyed Medusa jellyfish

We post our plankton finds on iNaturalist, an online community science platform for discovering, sharing, and learning about nature observations. Here are some of the organisms featured in this episode:

- Pacific acorn barnacle (Balanus glandula) cyprid larva: [ Ссылка ] and nauplius larva: [ Ссылка ]
- Red-eyed medusa (Polyorchis pencillatus): [ Ссылка ]
 
Find more of our plankton records and other biodiversity finds here: [ Ссылка ]

This episode is part of our series Microworlds, where we shrink down and discover the wonderful lives of the tiny, the miniature, the microworlds.

Produced by Josh Silberg and Meigan Henry
Written by Josh Silberg
Edited by Bennett Whitnell
Videography by Bennett Whitnell and Grant Callegari
Voice-over by Kristina Blanchflower
Microscopy/Scientific team: Alana Closs, Noriko Okamoto, Tyrel Froese, Faye Manning, and Kyle Hall
Additional footage by Tavish Campbell and Storyblocks

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