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Take An Extremely Close Up Look at the Human Eye

Jan. 31, 2011

By Brandon Scott Gorrell info

Brandon Scott Gorrell is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn, NY.

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No, these aren’t new HUBBLE photographs – they’re extremely detailed photographs of the human eye, shot by photographer Suren Manvelyan. Pretty freaking cool. And in case y’all didnt know:

The common origin… of all animal eyes is now widely accepted as fact. This is based upon the shared anatomical and genetic features of all eyes; that is, all modern eyes, varied as they are, have their origins in a proto-eye believed to have evolved some 540 million years ago. The majority of the advancements in early eyes are believed to have taken only a few million years to develop, since the first predator to gain true imaging would have touched off an “arms race”. Prey animals and competing predators alike would be at a distinct disadvantage without such capabilities and would be less likely to survive and reproduce. Hence multiple eye types and subtypes developed in parallel…

The very earliest “eyes,” called eyespots, were simple patches of photoreceptor protein in unicellular animals. In multicellular beings, multicellular eyespots evolved, physically similar to the receptor patches for taste and smell. These eyespots could only sense ambient brightness: they could distinguish light and dark, but not the direction of the lightsource. (Via Wikipedia)

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  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    jesus

  • 787

    Eye porn, sweet!

  • Marc

    “Prey animals and competing predators alike would be at a distinct disadvantage without such capabilities and would be less likely to survive and reproduce. Hence multiple eye types and subtypes developed in parallel…”

    Yes, but how did each species know that the others were developing eye sight?

  • Wendy

    Its not that they knew, but the predators that could see would have an advantage at getting more food, and so they eventually increased in number because they were more successful. Same with the prey, the prey with eyes could escape better and live more therefore reproduce more.

  • mattcrump

    Gross.

  • Marc

    got it, thanks!

  • http://twitter.com/tyashki Vit Peyr

    And I thought my eyes looked weird.

    Good to know I'm not alone.

  • oo

    i love seeing

    so much

  • Weird Kid

    crater eye!

  • jane

    shudder

  • http://twitter.com/john__dorian john dorian marshall

    what…

  • http://wayindie.blogspot.com kelly huckaby

    now when i look longingly into someone's eyes it'll be less romantic and more scientific i think, people will think i'm being romantic or something but really i'll be straining to look at the microscopically weird shit going on in their eye balls (lol balls).

  • Speedo

    damn, real ugly but interesting!

    follow me at: http://worldstopstupid.tumblr…./

  • thad

    god that is disturbing. black hole.

  • dood

    kinda looks like the Grand Canyon!

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