Hyper-compound Eyes
Over the years, cars evolved from jalopies into super cars and finally into hyper-cars; like the 1,200 horsepower Bugatti Veyron, capable of speeds over 400 kph. “Hyper” cars are definitely the fastest, however this capacity for such high speeds requires lots of brilliant engineering! There are also hyper biological organisms, but did they evolve from simple to complex, like cars except without an engineer? Trilobites are extinct arthropods which had compound eyes resembling insects eyes. But one trilobite of the suborder Phacopina had very unusual compound eyes, in that their eye lenses were spaced out instead of crowding together. These eyes were discovered to be hyper-compound eyes thanks to scientist Wilhelm Stürmer, who turned his van into a mobile X-ray lab for imaging fossils, including trilobites. He noticed structures he thought were nerves connected to these strange compound eyes, though everyone around him insisted he was wrong. Upon recent re-examination, however, his x-rays solved the mystery of this organism’s spaced out lenses, proving that he was right the eyes are connected to nerves. Individual eye units usually found in arthropods were seen in this trilobite species to be grouped together in multiples underneath each spaced out lens, making them hyper-compound eyes, as opposed to the typical simple individual eye units previously observed. These complicated eyes probably allowed low-light vision and complex visual information processing. Isn’t it strange that trilobites, with these amazingly complex eyes, are toward the bottom of the fossil record? And what other wonders remain unknown from the sparse fossil record? Does what we do know suggest something more about the Ultimate Designer of arthropods and their origin? Reference: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-98740-z https://www.livescience.com/trilobite-eyes
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Hyper-compound Eyes
Over the years, cars evolved from jalopies into super cars and finally into hyper-cars; like the 1,200 horsepower Bugatti Veyron, capable of speeds over 400 kph. “Hyper” cars are definitely the fastest,…
Junk no more
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