Friday, July 03, 2015

Single-Celled Predator Evolves Human-Like 'Eye'

Eye-like ocelloids are built from different endosymbiotically acquired components. 2015. Nature

A single-celled marine plankton evolved a miniature version of a multi-cellular eye so complex that it was originally mistaken for the eye of an animal that the plankton had eaten.
The eye-like structure contains a collection of sub-cellular organelles that look very much like the lens, cornea, iris and retina of multicellular eyes -- known as camera eyes -- that are found in humans and other larger animals.

Light micrograph (left), illustration (center) and transmission electron micrograph (right) show the eye-like structure in warnowiid dinoflagellates. PR