Palaeontology: Seeing stars on the micro scale
Nature Communications
April 2, 2014
Microlenses, seen in starfish and brittle stars, were present on such creatures at least 75 million years ago reports a paper published in Nature Communications this week. This finding suggests that a highly developed visual system similar to modern echinoderms’ date back to the Late Cretaceous period.
Echinoderms such as starfish and sea urchins typically lack an elaborate visual system like the compound eyes of insects. However, it has recently been reported that some brittle stars and starfish have microlenses that function as a compound eye. Yet, the evolutionary origins of these microlenses remain unclear. Przemyslaw Gorzelak and colleagues analysed Late Cretaceous brittle stars and starfish from Poland and observed lens-like microstructures, suggesting that these echinoderms had a highly developed visual system similar to that of modern forms. The team advances that these elaborate eyes could have evolved as a means of escaping predators during a period of large-scale diversification of aquatic predators.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms4576
Research highlights
-
Jul 6
Biotechnology: Mice cloned from freeze-dried somatic cellsNature Communications
-
Jul 4
Particle physics: A decade of Higgs boson researchNature
-
Jul 1
Space health: The path of most resistance could help limit bone loss during spaceflightScientific Reports
-
Jun 30
Evolution: Hawks learn on the fly to swoop up before perchingNature
-
Jun 28
Astronomy: Hydrogen- and helium-rich exoplanets may provide habitable conditions for billions of yearsNature Astronomy
-
Jun 24
Sport science: New wearable sensor to measure neck strain may detect potential concussionScientific Reports