Early vision was colourful 28 Oct 20074 Oct 2017 UPDATED: To give some of my colleagues at the University of Queensland some link love, it is being reported that they have sequenced the Queensland lungfish (currently under threat by a proposed dam) opsin genes, showing that they see in ultraviolet and visible light, as well as having the ability to see in dim and bright light. The paper is now accessible at BMC Evolutionary Biology. The conclusion drawn from this is that early land dwelling vertebrates saw in colour, which is probably true, but not, I think, because the lungfish is a “living fossil that dates back 400 million years”. It is a modern species that is the last example of a group that dates back that long. So it may be that it has derived colour vision. However, if the sequences are similar (homologous) to those in other vertebrates, the most parsimonious explanation is they both get these genes from a common ancestor. It’s also worth noting that our ancestors probably had only two receptors, one of which duplicated to give us green light reception. Humans have a very poor colour spectrum compared to some others – say the mantis shrimp, which has 7 receptors that evenly cover the spectrum from visible to ultraviolet. We, on the other hand have two receptors that haven’t differentiated much from each other: Human vision Mantis shrimp (stomatapod) vision Evolution Species and systematics
Creationism and Intelligent Design Skewed views of science 16 Jan 2009 Larry Moran points us to the following video on what science is and why pseudoscience is not to be taught or accepted without serious evidence (which makes it science). My only comment to add is that emotional appeals are information and evidence, but they are information and evidence about the… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Liveblogging the conference: Julia Clarke and Todd Grantham 14 Mar 2008 This is a session on paleontology that I missed the start of because I had to go get my power supply. Read More
Evolution Birds up 6 Nov 200718 Sep 2017 I can’t believe Laelaps beat me to this (shows how on the ball he is) but he’s just noted a paper that I watched getting written, and discussed in detail with Chris Glen, a very smart and talented young paleontologist, before I got to. So I will now, before he… Read More
Jeez, Wilkins. > We, on the other hand have two receptors that haven’t > differentiated much from each other: Green looks COMPLETELY different from red, mate. Get a grip. Jason
Jason, Tell that to a friend of mine who is R-G colorblind. When his wife was really P’d he would show up at work dressed like Ronald McDonald, and have no idea why people stared. fusilier James 2:24
Perhaps our ancestors where nocturnal at some stage, so no need for good colour vision and they lost part of their colour vision. We do have fairly good low light vision. When our predecessors stopped being nocturnal they luckilly evolved some of the colour vision back.
Perhaps our ancestors where nocturnal at some stage, so no need for good colour vision and they lost part of their colour vision. We do have fairly good low light vision. When our predecessors stopped being nocturnal they luckilly evolved some of the colour vision back.
Perhaps our ancestors where nocturnal at some stage, so no need for good colour vision and they lost part of their colour vision. We do have fairly good low light vision. When our predecessors stopped being nocturnal they luckilly evolved some of the colour vision back.
Perhaps our ancestors where nocturnal at some stage, so no need for good colour vision and they lost part of their colour vision. We do have fairly good low light vision. When our predecessors stopped being nocturnal they luckilly evolved some of the colour vision back.
Perhaps our ancestors where nocturnal at some stage, so no need for good colour vision and they lost part of their colour vision. We do have fairly good low light vision. When our predecessors stopped being nocturnal they luckilly evolved some of the colour vision back.