Quote Originally Posted by Pythonfriend View Post
I only managed to get the abstract of the paper, but the abstract in no way says that these micropits provide any directional heat sensing. they merely amplify signal strength by concentrating the thermal effect of the infrared radiation to those points where the heat-detecting cells are. The abstract says: "Pit organ micropits averaged 319 nm in diameter and 46 nm in depth and were spaced an average of 808 nm from each other". So its not deep enough to be a cup camera, and the size of a single cell is comparatively too large, so i just dont see how it could provide directional information.

Heat pits are between one and a few millimeters in size. The micropits you mention are too shallow, and also 319 nanometers is equal to 0.000319 millimeters. Thats off by like 3 orders of magnitude. I say these structures merely make existing heat pits more effective, but do not have the right size or geometry to provide directional sensing on their own. That is, if these structures even exist in a scaleless BP.

finding the head seems to be more of a tactile task.
Do you have access to any of the college libraries? It would be great if you can peruse the entire article. The paper goes more in depth on the studied functions of micropits. And, the micropits don't just receive signals from the pit holes either as they are found all over the head and body of the boid.

Finding the head in the dark tells us a lot about the infrared image the snake is receiving as striking in the general direction of the rat may not tell you what the snake "sees" but more what the snake hears/feels. So, if it can still target the head of the rat with that thin beta-keratin layer over the pit membrane, then it's an indicator that the absence of the visually-normal pit holes is not in any way providing a handicap.