Conjure a mental image of a scallop. Does it even have eyes? And even if you can picture where its eyes are, can you imagine a scallop seeing anything other than butter, garlic and the bottom of a sauté pan?
Up to 200, in fact, along the edge of the soft tissue that lines its shells. This allows the saltwater mollusc to see approximately 250 degrees around itself. Scallops use their eyes to help them escape from starfish and other predators — scallops aren’t always permanently attached to rocks like their cousins the clam — and to determine which bits of floating material are food-worthy enough to risk opening their shells for.