530 Million-Year-Old Eye Fossil Reveals How Creatures Once Peered at the World

[rangerrebew]

530 Million-Year-Old Eye Fossil Reveals How Creatures Once Peered at the World
By Dana Dovey On 12/7/17 at 1:22 PM
 
Scientists in Europe found a 530 million-year-old fossil of a now extinct creature called a trilobite during a recent excavation in Estonia. However, most remarkable about the find are the remnants of the crab-like creature's eye. The fossilized remains may represent the oldest specimen of an eye, and offer researchers a glimpse into how creatures viewed the world several hundred million years ago.

Although half a billion years old, the fossil is incredibly well preserved, and reveals not only how the ancient eye was structured, but also how it worked. In a study now published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team of international scientists explains how the ancient eye fossil helps connect the dots of how vision evolved from rudimentary stages to the complex trait it is today.

http://www.newsweek.com/trilobite-ancient-creatures-evolution-741101?piano_t=1

[Suppressed]

I doubt it needed a lens-eye, with the muddy environment it was in.

[jpsb]

530 million years old is really old. I mean really really old.

[Suppressed]

530 million years old is really old. I mean really really old.

Yup!

For life, that is.