Researchers find 'oldest ever eye' in fossil

Side view of the fossil's right eye

An "exceptional" 530-million-year-old fossil contains what could be the oldest eye ever discovered, according to scientists.

The remains of the extinct sea creature include an early form of the eye seen in many of today's animals, including crabs, bees and dragonflies.

Scientists made the find while looking at the well-preserved trilobite fossil.

They lived in seas during the Palaeozoic era, between 541-251 million years ago.

They found the ancient creature had a primitive form of compound eye, an optical organ that consists of arrays of tiny visual cells, called ommatidia, similar to those of present-day bees.

The team, which included a researcher from Edinburgh University, said their findings suggested that compound eyes had changed little over 500 million years.

The fossil was found in Estonia

Prof Euan Clarkson, of Edinburgh University's school of geosciences, said: "This exceptional fossil shows us how early animals saw the world around them hundreds of millions of years ago.

"Remarkably, it also reveals that the structure and function of compound eyes has barely changed in half a billion years."

The right eye of the fossil, which was unearthed in Estonia, was partly worn away, giving researchers a clear view inside the organ.

This revealed details of the eye's structure and function, and how it differs from modern compound eyes.

The species had poor vision compared with many animals today but it could identify predators and obstacles in its path, researchers believe.

Its eye consists of approximately 100 ommatidia, which are situated relatively far apart compared to contemporary compounds eyes, the team have found.

No lens

Unlike modern compound eyes, the fossil's eye does not have a lens.

The team believe this is likely to be because the primitive species, called Schmidtiellus reetae, lacked parts of the shell needed for lens formation.

Prof Brigitte Schoenemann, of Cologne University, who was also involved in the study, said: "This may be the earliest example of an eye that it is possible to find.

"Older specimens in sediment layers below this fossil contain only traces of the original animals, which were too soft to be fossilised and have disintegrated over time."

The team also revealed that only a few million years later, improved compound eyes with higher resolution developed in another trilobite species from the present-day Baltic region.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It was carried out in collaboration with the University of Cologne and Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia.