Anomalocaris. An artist's view
Credit Katrina Kenny/University of Adelaide, Australia
It was the fabulous discovery in 2011 of the well preserved eyes of that strange Cambrian "shrimp" Anomalocaris that made me double interested in astrobiology and what an alien might have found on our planet when life began here in earnest myBlog
As in the case of trilobites, also here we find at early stage of evolution staggeringly sophisticated and structurally highly complex eyes with close to 36.000 small lenses working together in perfect harmony to give the predator an almost 360o view of the surrounding sea.
Such amazing eyes exist also today - the design was a success! - enabling flies to decide where to fly and dragonflies to hunt them on the fly.
Dragonfly eyes
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