Ancient creatures ‘had powerful eyes’
Some ancient primitive creatures had excellent vision — in fact, their powerful eyes were made from 3,000 tiny lenses, a new study on fossils has revealed.
An international team says the evidence comes from Kangaroo Island fossils which are over 500 million years old and look like squashed eyes from a recently swatted fly, the Nature journal reported.
Team leader Dr Jim Jago said: “Our Nature paper reports extremely well preserved fossil eyes from Early Cambrian (approximately 515 million years old) rocks from Emu Bay on Kangaroo Island.
“These are by far most complicated eyes known from this period of earth’s history. Each eye is seven to nine millimetres across and comprises over 3000 tiny lenses. As yet, the animal to which these eyes belonged is unknown, but they may have belonged to a large shrimp like animal.
“However, the rock layers in which the eyes are preserved include a dazzling array of fossil marine animals, many being new to science. They include primitive trilobite-like creatures, bizarre armoured worms and large swimming predators.”
Dr Jago says that modern insects and crustaceans have “compound eyes” comprising hundreds or even thousands of individual lenses.
Post new comment