Journalism 2012

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An eye opening study sheds light on the evolution of vision. A new study from the University of Bristol, found some interesting facts about the origin of eye sight in animals, including humans.

The research team of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences used computer modeling to provide a detailed picture of how and when opsins evolved. Opsins are protein of the retina. These proteins are components of the visual pigments that catch photons of light in the eyes of almost every animal from fruit flies to humans.

Slightly due to inconsistent reports there is a hot debate about the evolutionary origins of vision.

The research team performed computational analysis to test every possibility of opsin evolution that has been proposed to date, incorporating all available information from all relevant animal lineages. This includes a sequenced group of sponges, thought to have had the world’s earliest eyes.

With a timeline that goes back 700 million years, an opsin ancestor was common to all groups dating back to then.

Dr. Pisani, apart of the research team, said, “This is an astonishing discovery because it implies that our study uncovered, in consequence, how and when vision evolved in humans.”

Jianna speaking science