Neuroscientist and engineer Malcolm A. MacIver of Northwestern and evolutionary biologist and paleontologist Lars Schmitz of Claremont McKenna, Scripps and Pitzer colleges recently discovered that fish's move o land was not sparked by the acquisition of limbs but rather the enlargement of their eyes. They studied 59 different species and concluded that eyes tripled in size before their move to land, rather than after. Eyes also shifted from the side of their heads to the top. This makes perfect sense as fish probably began to see easy prey on land. Large eyes only benefit through vision in air and provide no benefit to vision underwater.
This transition took upwards of 12 million years. This is amazing on the evolutionary time scale and could be a massive discovery. It was previously assumed that fish acquired limbs in order to hunt food on land. With this recent discovery of eyes potentially being the factory fueling the development of limbs, biology books across the world will have to be changed. Does this discovery drastically affect our daily lives? Probably not. But it will make you appreciate your eyes as they are the only reason we, the human race, exist. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170307152509.htm
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Alex Garcia-Environmentalist Archives
December 2016
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