Japanese scientists were surprised to discover that whale sharks had eyeballs covered in small teeth, up to about 3,000 of the little things, to be exact. In new research that they published in PLOS One journal, they noted that the largest shark in the world had “armored eyes” for protective purposes, given that their eyes are in the corners of their faces and that they have no eyelids. These make them vulnerable to the elements.
To protect their eyes further, they can even retract their eyeballs, keeping them safe. This was a shock to the researchers. ” “We also demonstrate that the whale shark has a strong ability to retract the eyeball into the eye socket. The retraction distance was calculated to be approximately half the diameter of the eye, which is comparable to those of other vertebrates that are known to have highly retractable eyes,” they wrote.
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