Research reveals which animals perceive time the fastest

[Still Waters]

New research reveals that the animals that perceive time the fastest are those that are small, can fly, or are marine predators.

These preliminary results will be presented at the British Ecological Society's annual meeting in Edinburgh on Tuesday 20th December by Dr. Kevin Healy at the University of Galway.

The study, which is the largest of its kind to date, analyzed the rate at which over 100 animals perceive changes in the world—known as temporal perception. The researchers found that animals with fast paced lifestyles have visual systems that can detect changes at higher rates.

Species such as blow flies and Dragon flies were able to detect changes at the highest rate, with vision that could handle 300hz (able to see changes 300 times a second), significantly faster than humans which can see at 65hz. In vertebrates, the fastest eyes belonged to the pied fly catchers which could see at 146hz. Salmon clocked in at 96hz and Dogs at 75hz. The slowest eyes belonged to crown-of-thorns starfish at 0.7hz.

https://phys.org/news/2022-12-reveals-animals-fastest.html