# Name which animal this enormous eyeball came from **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-which-animal-this-enormous-eyeball-came-from/637585 "2012-10-13T02:03:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-which-animal-this-enormous-eyeball-came-from/637585/1 "2012-10-13T02:03:49Z")
A man found [this beaut](http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/fl-mystery-eyeball-20121011,0,2071938.story) while walking down the beach. Sidebar has link to swordfish; maybe someone figured it out. Pretty weird object all by its lonesome. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-which-animal-this-enormous-eyeball-came-from/637585/2 "2012-10-13T02:08:34Z")
My vote would be some sort of very large squid, but I’m far from an expert. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-which-animal-this-enormous-eyeball-came-from/637585/3 "2012-10-13T02:14:08Z")
That actually isn’t that big for a squid eye, [which can reach 20 inches in diameter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_body_part#Living_animals) (possibly larger), although it might be from a smaller species or juvenile. ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-which-animal-this-enormous-eyeball-came-from/637585/4 "2012-10-13T03:28:05Z")
I’m betting on billfish or tuna. No real reason, it just kind of looks that way. ---
**Author:** ![newme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e0b2c6/32.png) [@newme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newme)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-which-animal-this-enormous-eyeball-came-from/637585/5 "2012-10-13T03:39:46Z")
Eye spy a duplicate thread[here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=668491) ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-which-animal-this-enormous-eyeball-came-from/637585/6 "2012-10-13T03:40:52Z")
Yay…finally, a national news story from South Florida that isn’t too embarrassing! I’m going to savor this moment. (The link is from an Orlando paper, but it’s from a story in South Florida.) -D/a ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-which-animal-this-enormous-eyeball-came-from/637585/7 "2012-10-13T03:46:33Z")
A buck eye? ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-which-animal-this-enormous-eyeball-came-from/637585/8 "2012-10-13T05:36:21Z")
Probably a tuna fish. They sell them to eat here in Hokkaido. Bleh! Nothing like a styrofoam pack of big googly eyes looking up out of the chilled cabinet at you. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-which-animal-this-enormous-eyeball-came-from/637585/9 "2012-10-13T15:03:13Z")
It should be relatively easy to tell whether it’s from a vertebrate (such as whale or fish) or a mollusk (such as squid). While their eyes are very similar in many ways, they have separate evolutionary origins, and so differ in some major structures (for instance, in vertebrates, the optic nerve connects to the front of the retina, while in mollusks, it connects to the back). ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-which-animal-this-enormous-eyeball-came-from/637585/10 "2012-10-13T16:37:39Z")
[It’s a swordfish eye.](http://deepseanews.com/2012/10/solved-where-did-the-big-eye-in-the-sea-come-from/)