Not sure if this would be physics or biology. Our eyes evolved to detect the "visible spectrum" but what if some creatures evolved to see other wavelengths of light? gamma? X-ray? etc.

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anonymous · Answer

If the creature would benefit from detecting sources of gamma/x-rays, they surely would develop a sense for this spectrum. Some bats, for example, can see ultaviolet light, which helps them to detect special flowers.

anonymous · Answer

wow that's too damn cool! yay bats! what about birds and whales, aren't they able to see/detect the magnetic fields of the earth? hence migration and all of that jazz?

anonymous · Answer

Some snakes have evolved to see in the infrared, the reason humans see the visible light is rather simple, the atmosphere is clear to visible light. Most other light is distorted by the air.

anonymous · Answer

http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110621/sc_livescience/humansmayhavemagneticsixthsense that link is about ongoing research that might show that some proteins are perceptibly affected by magnetic fields. if that is the case, then it would be very likely for some organism somewhere to be able to sense magnetic fields. i do not knows specifics about whales or birds, but it seems it is indeed possible!

anonymous · Answer

No animal would ever be able to to evolve vision capable of seeing gamma rays.  Gamma rays have too much energy so they would pretty much destroy and rearrange any molecules it hits.