ArticleEye (London, England)2018
The evolution of eyes: major steps. The Keeler lecture 2017: centenary of Keeler Ltd.
Article in Eye (London, England), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Dynamic changes in ocular shape during human development and its implications for retina fovea formation.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2024Pooled it
- Extrinsic polarity cues control lamination versus cluster-based organization in vertebrate retinal development.iScience · 2026Article
- Evolution of the ocular immune system.Eye (London, England) · 2025Review
- Defending and refining the BirchAnimal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2025Review
- Candidate SNP Markers Significantly Altering the Affinity of the TATA-Binding Protein for the Promoters of Human Genes Associated with Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- A century of exercise physiology: concepts that ignited the study of human thermoregulation. Part 4: evolution, thermal adaptation and unsupported theories of thermoregulation.European journal of applied physiology · 2024Review
- Gene networks and the evolution of olfactory organs, eyes, hair cells and motoneurons: a view encompassing lancelets, tunicates and vertebrates.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Review
- Teleost Eye Is the Portal of IHNV Entry and Contributes to a Robust Mucosal Immune Response.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Modeling the Visual Landscape: A Review on Approaches, Methods and Techniques.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Vision and retina evolution: How to develop a retina.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2022Article
- A new method for training creativity: narrative as an alternative to divergent thinking.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2022Article
- A Comparative Analysis of the Camera-like Eyes of Jumping Spiders and Humans.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Domestication-induced reduction in eye size revealed in multiple common garden experiments: The case of Atlantic salmon (Evolutionary applications · 2021Article
- A biphasic relational approach to the evolution of human consciousness: Un enfoque relacional bifásico para la evolución de la conciencia humana.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
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Abstract
Ocular evolution is an immense topic, and I do not expect to cover all the details of this process in this manuscript. I will present some concepts about some of the major steps in the evolutionary process to stimulate your thinking about this interesting and complex topic. In the prebiotic soup, vision was not inevitable. Eyes were not preordained. Nor were their shapes, sizes, or current physiology. Sight is an evolutionary gift but it was not ineluctable. The existence of eyes is so basic to our profession that we often do not consider how and why vision appeared or evolved on earth at all. Although vision is a principal sensory modality for at least three major phyla and is present in three or four more phyla, there are other sensory mechanisms that could have been and were occasionally selected instead. Some animals rely on other sensory mechanisms such as audition, echolocation, or olfaction that are much more effective in their particular niche than would be vision. We may not believe those sensory mechanisms to be as robust as vision, but the creatures using those skills would argue otherwise. Why does vision exist at all? And why is it so dominant at least in the number of species that rely upon it for their principal sensory mechanism? How did vision begin? What were the important steps in the evolution of eyes? How did eyes differentiate along their various paths, and why?
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