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
Evolution The ontology of biology – interlude and podcast 5 Dec 2008 The General Ecosystems Thinking (GET) Group centred at Queensland University of Technology (or as we at UQ like to call it, the “city university”) invited me to come give a talk on the ontology of evolution. I gave it yesterday. As it will be part of this series of posts… Read More
Species and systematics “Class” war 1 Nov 2008 An essay in Nature recently, titled “A question of class” (by Jeffrey Parsons and Yair Wand) puts the case that classification is crucial to science and needs to be understood. They hold, as I do, that a poor understanding of classification – particularly of the concepts/words “class” and “category” –… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Ants! 23 Sep 2008 There’s a guest post at the Panda’s Thumb by myrmidon Alex Wild on the new “primitive” ant just reported. Go read it. 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.