Title
Evolution's witness : how eyes evolved / Ivan R. Schwab ; histology by Richard Dubielzig and Charles Schobert.
ISBN
9780195369748 (alk. paper)
0195369742 (alk. paper)
Publication Details
New York : Oxford University Press, c2012.
Language
English
Description
xvi, 306 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 29 cm.
Call Number
QP475 .S374 2012
Dewey Decimal Classification
612.8/4
Summary
"With predation and carnivory as catalysts, the first known eye appeared in a trilobite during the Cambrian explosion approximately 543 million years ago. This period was a crucible of evolution and teemed with anatomic creativity although the journey to formed vision actually began billions of years before that. The Cambrian period, however, spawned nearly all morphologic forms of the eye, followed by descent over hundreds of millions of years providing an unimaginable variety of eyes with at least ten different designs. Some eyes display spectacular creativity with mirror, scanning or telephoto optics. Some of these ocular designs are merely curiosities, while others offer the finest visual potential packed into a small space, limited only by the laws of diffraction or physiological optics. For example, some spiders developed tiny, well-formed eyes with scanning optics and three visual pigments; scallops have 40-100 eyes circling their mantle, each of which has mirror optics and contains two separate retinae per eye; deep ocean fish have eyes shaped like tubes containing yellow lenses to break camouflage; and some birds have vision five times better than ours; but this is only part of the story. Each animal alive today has an eye that fits is niche perfectly demonstrating the intimacy of the evolutionary process as no other organ could. The evolution of the eye is one of the best examples of Darwinian principles.Although few eyes fossilize in any significant manner, many details of this evolution are known and understood. From initial photoreception 3.75 billion years ago to early spatial recognition in the first cupped eyespot in Euglena to fully formed camera style eyes the size of beach balls in ichthyosaurs, animals have processed light to compete and survive in their respective niches.It is evolution's greatest gift and its greatest triumph. This is the story of the evolution of the eye"--Provided by publisher.
"The evolution of the eye spans 3.75 billion years from single cell organisms with eyespots to Metazoa with superb camera style eyes. At least ten different ocular models have evolved independently into myriad optical and physiological masterpieces. The story of the eye reveals evolution's greatest triumph and sweetest gift. This book describes its journey"--Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Prologue : Molecular genesis
The age of first cellular life
The age of complex cellular life
Eukaryotes organize and metazoans arise
Early animals prepare the ground
Vision's big bang blazes the trail
The age of arthropods
Vertebrates gain a foothold
Shelly fauna rule the seas
The piscine eye develops
The piscine eye matures
Insects arise to fly
Stealth, speed, and predation
The age of tetrapods and terrestrials
Terrestrial life flourishes
Reptiles push the ocular envelope
March of the archosaurs
Dinosaurs and their companions
Cephalopods change direction
Snakes arise from the ground
The age of birds : the eye taken to great heights
Pollinators coevolve
Mammalia diversifies
The age of mammals
Planktonic soup evolves
Mammals return to the sea
The visual witness and a conscious brain.
