390-million-year-old trilobite fossil had tiny eyes inside its eyes
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A study of a 390-million-year-old trilobite fossil has revealed that it had a very unique eye – a hyper eye.
What are trilobites?
Trilobites were helmet-headed creatures that lived in Earth’s seas hundreds of millions of years ago. They were arthropods and distantly related to horseshoe crabs.
An arthropod is a type of animal with no spine, a hard outer skin, legs with bones joined together, and a body divided into different parts. Examples are spiders, crabs, or ants.
The study says that these trilobites “hyper compound eyes,” inside their eyes. These tiny eyes were composed of hundreds of lenses.
Today’s arthropods, like dragonflies and mantis shrimp, also have powerful compound eyes. In this, each eye looks like it is divided into many tiny parts, each equipped with its own lens, like a disco ball.
However, the trilobites fossil had compound eyes that were far larger and more complex than modern than arthropod relatives. They had two eyes and each eye had hundreds of lenses.
The trilobite fossil
This fossil was actually discovered about 50 years ago. And a scientist named Wilhelm Stürmer wrote about this “hyper eye” finding but no one believed him then. It is only now, after close study, that scientists have confirmed he was right.
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