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 On the “Darwin Year” 1 Jul 2008 Readers may be somewhat surprised that Evolving Thoughts hasn’t made much of the Darwin bicentennial and the Origin sesquicentennial so far. Well, I haven’t needed to, given the number of other folk making hay from this. In particular I recommend Carl Zimmer’s piece, over at his new digs with Discover… Read More
Biology Are humans just animals? 2 Jul 20133 Jul 2013 Yesterday I heard on the radio a discussion by neuroscientist turned philosopher Raymond Tallis, who was arguing that humans are not just animals, and that consciousness is not just what happens in the brain. He went on at length about “Darwinitis”, a disease of intellectuals who wish to explain everything… Read More
Evolution The two Wilsons on sociobiology 18 Nov 200718 Sep 2017 It’s not often I get to comment on as-yet-unpublished work, but I have been sent a copy of a forthcoming essay by David Sloan Wilson and Edward O. Wilson, two giants of the theoretical evolutionary field, defending and redefining the nature of sociobiology (Wilson and Wilson 2007). As I have… 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.