5 bizarre ways animals see the world

The vision of these mollusks is similar to that of a garden snail – everything is quite blurry, but it's not nothing. While snails don't see in color, giant clams can detect changes in light levels with their tiny pinhole eyes – each individual has hundreds of them. That's how giant clams detect dangers.

First of all, sharks can see in almost all directions thanks to the placement of their eyes. When the water is murky, sharks still see better than we do. In clear water, nothing escapes their notice, given that the sense of sight is not that important to sharks: they can detect subtle chemical chages in water, hear infrasonic sounds and sense electric fields.

Our pets also have unique vision – that's why cats love starring at nothing so much.

While most arachnids don't have color vision, jumping spiders can see even a broader spectrum of colors than humans. They see in high resolution (while most spiders only see the difference between light and dark) and can detect colors in the ultraviolet range.

Birds' retinas are loaded with cryptochrome, a special protein which provides a magnetic field filter over their eyes. It helps them to navigate the globe. It's still not known what exactly birds see, but magnetic fields most likely appear to them as bands of light.

Petals of many flowers have ultraviolet patterns that serve as guides to their pollinators, and bees use them as maps. Under ultraviolet, such flowers have a darker center, so bees always know where to find nectar.