Starfish specie found in Indian Ocean has poor vision and is color-blind

A species of starfish, known as Linckia laevigata, which is commonly found in the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the western and central Pacific Ocean, have relatively poor vision and are color-blind.

Starfish may have the incredible ability to regenerate their limbs, but when it comes to the power of sight, these marine creatures fall a bit short, the new study finds.

Study lead author Anders Garm, an associate professor in the department of biology at the University of Copenhagen studied their spectral sensitivity, meaning what colors of light they see, and found that they don't have color vision.

Garm said that since they can't distinguish between different types of light, they basically see everything in grayscale.

The researchers also found that starfish do not see sharp, clear images.

In fact, their eyes have resolutions of only about 200 pixels, Garm told Live Science.

Starfish also process images at a much slower rate than humans, which means they are unable to see fast-moving objects, Garm added.

The new findings were published online today (Jan. 7) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.