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Nocturnality is a behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed senses of hearing, smell, and specially adapted eyesight. [1]
Many animals such as cats possess high-resolution night vision, allowing them to discriminate objects with high frequencies in low illumination settings. The tapetum lucidum is a reflective structure that is responsible for this superior night vision as it mirrors light back through the retina exposing the photoreceptor cells to an increased ...
The distinction is not absolute, because crepuscular animals may also be active on a bright moonlit night or on a dull day. Some animals casually described as nocturnal are in fact crepuscular. [2] Special classes of crepuscular behaviour include matutinal, or "matinal", animals active only in the dawn, and vespertine, only in the dusk.
The dark blue, teal, and gold tapetum lucidum from the eye of a cow Retina of a mongrel dog with strong tapetal reflex. The tapetum lucidum (Latin for 'bright tapestry, coverlet'; / t ə ˈ p iː t əm ˈ l uː s ɪ d əm / tə-PEE-təm LOO-sih-dəm; pl.: tapeta lucida) [1] is a layer of tissue in the eye of many vertebrates and some other animals.
Nocturnal animals (for example, tarsiers) and animals that live in open landscapes have larger eyes. The vision of forest animals is not so sharp, and in burrowing underground species (moles, gophers, zokors), eyes are reduced to a greater extent, in some cases (marsupial moles, mole rats, blind mole), they are even covered by a skin membrane.
Night monkeys have large brown eyes; the size improves their nocturnal vision increasing their ability to be active at night. They are sometimes said to lack a tapetum lucidum, the reflective layer behind the retina possessed by many nocturnal animals. [8] Other sources say they have a tapetum lucidum composed of collagen fibrils. [9]
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Crepuscular, a classification of animals that are active primarily during twilight, making them similar to nocturnal animals. Diurnality, plant or animal behavior characterized by activity during the day and sleeping at night. Cathemeral, a classification of organisms with sporadic and random intervals of activity during the day or night.