Excavation of 530 million year old marine fossils still has eyes

Researchers have found a trilobite fossil with what may be the oldest eye ever discovered.

The right eye of a trilobite fossil may be the oldest eye ever excavated. Photo: International Business Times.

A team of European scientists discovered a 530 million-year-old trilobite fossil with a relatively intact right eye in Estonia, the International Business Times reported yesterday. The partially worn eye allowed them to examine details of the eye's structure.

Trilobites are ancestors of spiders and crabs and are closely related to modern horseshoe crabs. They lived during the Paleozoic Era, 540 to 250 million years ago. Their eyes may have been precursors to compound eyes, large eyes made up of many separate parts, similar to those of bees or dragonflies.

However, the ancient trilobite's eyes lacked lenses like those of today's creatures. "Its compound eyes had structures similar to those of modern bees and dragonflies, but lacked the lenses typical of these eyes," the researchers said.

"This extraordinary fossil tells us how ancient creatures saw the world hundreds of millions of years ago. In particular, it reveals that the structure and function of the compound eye has remained virtually unchanged for half a billion years," Professor Euan Clarkson at the University of Edinburgh told the BBC.

Fossils from hundreds of millions of years ago that are so well preserved are rare. "This is probably the oldest eye specimen that we have ever found," said Professor Brigitte Schoenemann of the University of Cologne, a member of the research team.

“The older specimens in the sedimentary layers below this fossil contain only trace amounts of organisms. They are too soft to fossilize and have decomposed over time,” Schoenemann added.

According to VNE