Ryan and Carlson '05 Featured With Bats
10 July 2003 Ryan and Carlson 05 Featured With Bats
Professor Jim Ryan and Alyssa Carlson '05 were featured for their research on bats' eyesight in the July 9 Daily Messenger story Bats can see but how well?. In order to get a closer look at the animals' eyes, Ryan and Carlson removed and dissected the retinas the part of the eye that receives visual information from about seven bats and cut them into small pieces. They then stained the tissue and placed it under a scanning electron microscope. They found that the bats with larger eyes the megachiroptera group had retinas that featured deep ridges, while the smaller-eyed bats those of the microchiroptera had flatter retina. The deep ridges, Ryan said, allow for greater packing of rods, which should give the bats better vision.