Fig 1.
A. Anterior view of the whale shark, showing the locations of the eye (arrows). Note that whale shark eye is well projected from the orbit. Photo was taken in the sea near Saint Helena Island. B. Close-up view of the left eye of a captive whale shark (Specimen A).
Fig 2.
Eye denticles of the whale shark.
A. Distal view of left eyeball (OCF-P04248). B. Line drawing of OCF-P04248, showing the distribution of the eye denticles (gray area). C. Three-dimensional image of eye denticle aggregation obtained from computed tomography data. Horizontal and vertical lines of no denticle area (arrowheads) are artifacts. D. Posterior view of panel C. Scale bars = 0.5 cm.
Fig 3.
Morphology of each eye denticle of the whale shark.
A. Close-up of aggregated eye denticles. B–D. 3D reconstruction of eye denticles obtained from computed tomography data, showing the morphological variations. E. Dermal denticle from the skin just above of the eyeball. In B–E, apical, basal, lateral, and posterior views from left to right. Scale bars = 500 μm in A and 100 μm in B–E. See supporting information S1 Video.
Fig 4.
Eye retraction of the whale shark (Specimen A).
Relaxed (A) and retracted (B) phases of the whale shark eye. The lower left of each panel is a schematic diagram showing the location and rotation of the eyeball. See supporting information S2 Video for original video clip.
Fig 5.
Eye retraction of the whale shark in ultrasound data.
A. Left lateral view of the whale shark head, showing the location where the ultrasound data was obtained in this study. Ultrasound data are shown in the cross section passing through the maximum height of the eyeball (a–a’). B. Relaxed (left) and retracted (right) phase of the whale shark eye (specimen C). Scale bar = 1 cm. C. Schematic illustration of panel B. Dotted line represent the distal-proximal axis of the eyeball. See supporting information S3 and S4 Videos for original video clips.