If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)

Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

The eyes have it. 700mya jellyfish

31-10-2012 7:51pm

#1

Capt'n Midnight

Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,563 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2003

Posts: 91801

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/30/evolution_of_sight/

Using computer modelling, the scientists figured out how and when opsins evolved in a group of marine animals including jellyfish, which are considered to have had the world's earliest eyes. Opsins are the protein receptors which confer the ability to sense light in all animals that have had sight throughout time.

The program used data from every hypothesis of opsin evolution to date as well as all the available genomic information from a recently discovered group of sponges called Oscarella carmela and Cnidarians, or jellyfish.

The team, from Bristol Uni's School of Earth Sciences and National University of Ireland Maynooth, now reckon that an opsin ancestor common to all the group started showing up 700 million years ago. That opsin was 'blind' but over the next 11 million years it evolved genetically to allow it to detect light.

"The great relevance of our study is that we traced the earliest origin of vision and we found that it originated only once in animals," Dr Davide Pisani of Bristol said. "This is an astonishing discovery because it implies that our study uncovered, in consequence, how and when vision evolved in humans."

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/10/25/1204609109.abstract?sid=65a26f5c-abd2-4b26-a94c-aef0bf62ba6f

3