A recent study revealed that the biological vision technology in humans has been in existence for over 300 million years. Scientists for long have believed that human eye's ability to see in color actually developed several hundreds of millions years ago. And findings from this latest discovery of fish whose eyes have remained largely intact have provided evidence which proves this statement true.
As per researchers the human eye depends on pigments that absorb light, and these pigments are actually present in cells that read called rods and cones.
Rods and cones are the two photoreceptors that send information to the brain that helps human eye to see. These photoreceptors convert the electromagnetic radiation that can be seen to information the human brain can process.
Researchers said that the creature recovered by paleontologists working for Kumamoto University in Japan is best known as 'myllokunmingia'.
The researchers during the study also found that the fish had a backbone, making it the earliest known vertebrate to exist on the face of the earth. The researchers even noted the creature's eye may also have had a basic camera-like ability.
As per researchers associated with the study, the fossilized fish is 10 centimeters long and was discovered in Kansas in the Hamilton Quarry.
Lead researcher of the study Gengo Tanaka, said, "Except for optical system, as in calcified lenses of trilobite and ostracod arthropods, other parts of visual system are not usually preserved in the fossil record, because the soft tissue of the eye and the brain decay rapidly after death".
The fossilized fish has eyeballs which are estimated to be over 300 million years. And as these fossils are so well preserved, they can be viewed quite clearly under an electron microscope. The findings of the study were published in the Journal of Nature Communications on December 23.
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