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What can box jellyfish tell us about early eye evolution?

Nilsson, Dan-E LU (2006) In Perception 35. p.167-167
Abstract
The eyes of visually prominent animals such as vertebrates, cephalopods, and arthropods generally subserve a multitude of visual tasks. Naturally, early stages in the evolution of these complex visual organs must have been simpler, and subserved a smaller number of visual tasks. Hence, eye evolution is driven by a consecutive accumulation of visual tasks. Each task adds to the requirements on eye structure, making it gradually more complex. For these reasons, reconstructions of eye evolution should ideally be based on an understanding of the sequential addition of visual tasks. In particular, it is interesting to ask what the first visual tasks might have been, and what requirements these would have placed on the structure and function of... (More)
The eyes of visually prominent animals such as vertebrates, cephalopods, and arthropods generally subserve a multitude of visual tasks. Naturally, early stages in the evolution of these complex visual organs must have been simpler, and subserved a smaller number of visual tasks. Hence, eye evolution is driven by a consecutive accumulation of visual tasks. Each task adds to the requirements on eye structure, making it gradually more complex. For these reasons, reconstructions of eye evolution should ideally be based on an understanding of the sequential addition of visual tasks. In particular, it is interesting to ask what the first visual tasks might have been, and what requirements these would have placed on the structure and function of early eyes. With this objective, we have investigated vision in a group of simple and phylogenetically basal animals, the box jellyfish. Behavioural experiments indicate that these animals use vision primarily for positioning in the habitat, and for negotiating obstacles. To serve these tasks, the eyes are tuned for low spatial frequencies and are colour-blind. The findings indicate that low resolution is not just sufficient, but in fact desirable in early stages of eye evolution. (Less)
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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Perception
volume
35
pages
167 - 167
publisher
Pion Ltd
ISSN
0301-0066
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
dcbbcc60-4f3d-4538-bc24-9b97410ba382 (old id 759232)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:15:44
date last changed
2020-10-13 13:46:34
@article{dcbbcc60-4f3d-4538-bc24-9b97410ba382,
  abstract     = {{The eyes of visually prominent animals such as vertebrates, cephalopods, and arthropods generally subserve a multitude of visual tasks. Naturally, early stages in the evolution of these complex visual organs must have been simpler, and subserved a smaller number of visual tasks. Hence, eye evolution is driven by a consecutive accumulation of visual tasks. Each task adds to the requirements on eye structure, making it gradually more complex. For these reasons, reconstructions of eye evolution should ideally be based on an understanding of the sequential addition of visual tasks. In particular, it is interesting to ask what the first visual tasks might have been, and what requirements these would have placed on the structure and function of early eyes. With this objective, we have investigated vision in a group of simple and phylogenetically basal animals, the box jellyfish. Behavioural experiments indicate that these animals use vision primarily for positioning in the habitat, and for negotiating obstacles. To serve these tasks, the eyes are tuned for low spatial frequencies and are colour-blind. The findings indicate that low resolution is not just sufficient, but in fact desirable in early stages of eye evolution.}},
  author       = {{Nilsson, Dan-E}},
  issn         = {{0301-0066}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{167--167}},
  publisher    = {{Pion Ltd}},
  series       = {{Perception}},
  title        = {{What can box jellyfish tell us about early eye evolution?}},
  volume       = {{35}},
  year         = {{2006}},
}