A fossilized trilobite date back 390 million long time has revealed some redoubtable secrets about the magnanimous devil dog arthropods – they had optic unlike any other fauna ever expose . What looked to be two clear-cut oculus , like scientist would expect , were really large systems of century of single lenses that all form their own mini - eyes . That is to say that these animals had hundreds and hundreds of eyes .
Behind each crystalline lens were a serial of facets anchored by photoreceptors and a connection of nerve cells , conquer the light from each before sending it down a fundamental ocular spunk to the brain , creating what can only be assumed as an whole unique manner of seeing the world . The research was published in the journalScientific Reports .
To make the breakthrough , the researcher analyzed a series of XTC - ray photographs take of the super well - preserved fogy back in the seventies . The photos , taken by radiotherapist and amateur fossilist Wilhelm Stürmer , demonstrated clear filament under the eye and nominate that these were nerves , as well as proposing that these specific trilobites had a serial publication of submarine facets ( humble areas of photoreceptors that make up a compound centre , such as the petite hexagons you could see on a fly sheet ’s oculus ) beneath each eye that contributed to the overall social organisation . Scientists at the time turn away this interpretation . Now , 40 year later , modern technology allows scientists to actualize Stürmer was right .
The fogy belong to a trilobite suborder , called Phacopinae . While other trilobite have eyes comparable to a innovative fly – hexagonal facet make up a large compound centre , and under each facet lie eight photoreceptors that seize light – this suborder takes a different approach . Each compound oculus carry 200 lenses , diffuse apart much further than other deterrent example of compound optic , and under each lies six submarine sandwich - facets .
" Each of these heart lie of about 200 lens up to 1 mm [ 0.04 inches ] in size , " said lead researcher and zoologist Dr Brigitte Schoenemann , in astatement .
" Under each of these lenses , in turning , at least 6 facet are pose up , each of which together again makes up a humble chemical compound oculus . So we have about 200 compound middle ( one under each lens ) in one eye . "
These all bestow to a " hyper middle " , which may have give up Phacopinae to have a distinct boundary over other creature . Their many lens and intricate centre systems may have allowed them to pick up tiny changes in brightness in low - light conditions , giving them an advantage in hunting quarry ( such as firmly - shell animals that they crushed and stab to death with their leg ) or hiding from big piranha . It is also possible that some areas of the hyper eyes had unlike functions , such as contrast sweetening .
Stürmer , unfortunately , passed away in the 1980s , and so will never get the validation he deserved for highlight a unique eye structure 40 years before others could .
