Evolution of eyes

Eyes are all over the animal kingdom but no 2 pairs of eyes operate in the same manner. They evolved numerous times in different lineages and is a great example of divergent evolution. 600 million years ago, ocean life is simple. The ancestors of jellyfish have light sensitive organs called eye spots. Today jellyfish are able to use their eye spots to avoid predators and find food.

544 million years ago, the animals became faster and more plentiful.  Compound eyes appeared on trilobites and gave them a supreme survival advantage for 300 million years. Insects are modern day related predecessors of animals like trilobites. Insects have multiple lenses in their compound eyes. Dragon flies have 29,000 lenses in each of their eyes and they can capture images 5 times faster than us therefore allowing them to conduct skilful fast-paced aerial chases.    

Vertebrates’ eyes began as simple light receptors 550 million years ago during the Cambrian period in proto-fish animals. Carnivorous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex had binocular line of sight which could provide depth perception and distance management while fighting and chasing prey.  Allosaurus’ head crest had a poorer overlap but could still succeed with an ambush predator strategy.

Rabbits have 360 degree vision and can see around and high up. Their vision is not 3 dimensional but could provide an all-round alarm system.

100 million years ago, mammals evolved night vision to stay out of the way of big dinosaurs and to exploit nightfall to feed and scavenge.  Large corneas allow more light to hit the retina and allow nocturnal mammals to succeed in the dark. Tarsiers have huge eyes which are almost all cornea and these eyes are bigger than their brains and skulls. Their eyes bulge out of their skulls and are held down by extra strong connective tissue. They then have to compensate for immovable eyes with the help of a neck which can turn 180 degrees.  Big cat eyes have a double retention system to capture light protons which produce eye shine that allow them to see their prey in the dark 6 times better than us.    

Eagle’s eyes are huge. Eagles are much lighter and smaller in size than us but their eyes are the same size as our’s. Their eyes also have 5 times the image resolution and are able to see 3 times further as compared to us.

Our primate ancestors evolved eyes that have good colour vision which allowed them to see red. Red leaves are younger and more nutritious. Binocular vision also allowed them to navigate throughout the tree tops and execute hand-eye coordination. But this made them vulnerable to predation from behind/from the skies. Primates then responded with group living and used communal vision to keep wary of predators. This group living then pushed the brain to evolve a bigger brain to understand and execute more sophisticated social interactions

The Permian extinction

The ancient mass extinction of the Permian geological period happened 250 million years ago. 95% of the species went extinct! Scientists have found evidence that volcanoes spilled out large amounts of CO2 which led to global warming and heated up the Permian ocean. Warm water cannot retain much oxygen and Hydrogen sulphide then starts to produce from the bacteria thriving in such waters. Hydrogen sulphide permeated the late Permian ocean and bubbled out of the oceans and killed life in the oceans and then on land too.

NOVA: The evolution of Communication

Communication between prey and predator? Preys can communicate poison by their skin color, like the Dart frog for example. Therefore predators will tend to stay away from them.


Ants communicate via hydrocarbons and create odours for communication via such hydrocarbons. Each ant job have a different odour. Scientists have been able to create particular responses in ant colonies by using dummy ants with various ant job odours.


The “Milky sea” phenomenon is created by bioluminescent bacteria who use chemicals to communicate with each other. Bacteria communicate to accomplish tasks that they would be unable to perform together: such as attacking a organism together or find food. These bacteria were lighting up to get fish to be eaten as they want to get into the stomach environments of fishes.

California ground squirrels use scent to mark territory. But these same scents leave behind olfactory cues that rattlesnakes use to hunt them Squirrels countered by chewing on shed rattlesnake skin and cloaked their scent by secreting it onto their own fur.

Scientists are now tracking whale communication via audio-detection buoy marker and satellites. Whale herds move over great distances in unison via very loud low frequency communication.

Wolf howls serve as communication of distance, location and as a form of defence (to indicate to enemies about the threatening size of their pack).

Song birds possess the most advanced vocal abilities. They can produce left and right frequencies. Sound penetrates their environment in 3 dimensions unlike visual communication which are easily blocked out by trees and foliage.

Chimps use body postures, hand signals, facial expressions and sounds to communicate. The similar areas in human and chimp brains light up when they communicate.

Recognise that you are being MANIPULATED

Why is there no "SINGAPORE STANDS WITH DEMOCRATIC IRAQ" FB group?

Why are there no Singaporeans writing open letters to ministers asking them to make a stand on the Iraqi crisis?

Why are there little/no (not that I have seen) posts which merge the Singapore and Iraqi flag?

There are war crimes (civilian casualties and wanton executions) happening right now in Iraq too. And the scale of the situation in Iraq is larger than what is happening in Gaza.

Simple. the besieged in Iraq are not as adept as Hamas (which allows the Palestinian people to be besieged for their benefit) at playing the politicking and "rally around the flag" game.

"Mr Mahmoud Abbas, the sometimes moderate, often ineffectual leader of the Palestinian Authority, just asked his rivals in Hamas a question that other bewildered people are also asking: “What are you trying to achieve by sending rockets?”"

"In reaction to these indiscriminately fired missiles, Israel has bombarded targets across Gaza, killing more than 100 people so far. Compared with violent death rates in other parts of the Middle East, the number is small. (More than 170,000 people have been killed in the Syrian civil war to date.) But it is large enough to suggest an answer to Mr Abbas’s question: Hamas is trying to get Israel to kill as many Palestinians as possible.

Dead Palestinians represent a crucial propaganda victory for the nihilists of Hamas. It is perverse, but true. It is also the best possible explanation for Hamas’ behaviour, because it has no other plausible strategic goal here."

-----The futility of prayer-----

The logical fallacies with regard to the act/concept of praying = Post-hoc rationalising + Patternicity + Agenticity + "Wishful thinking" fallacy + Credo Consolans + confirmation bias. In addition, the efficacy of prayer and its implied supernaturalism defies all known laws of Science. Lastly, the efficacy of prayer also has never been studied and proven mathematically and scientifically.

When I was younger and experienced pain/crisis, I remember making pleas and bargains with a "higher power" to help me and those involved because it was a natural thing to do...no one had instructed me to do this but I did. It was so natural, like it was a reflex action of sorts. I communicated with this "higher power" through my mind's voice.

Now that I am older and more critical, I don't do this anymore. I recognise that pain is either an emotional or physiological response/marker and focus on bettering the condition. How do I console myself? Things could be worse, which is always true. And others may be experiencing worse than me. Many are definitely experiencing and many have experienced worse than me.So I am always lucky/luckier. In addition, I am lucky to even be/have been alive and part of the beautiful evolutionary biological history of our planet.

And if I were to not succeed in overcoming this pain, I will die (at worst). And dying is nothing to fear. Sure, the pain if any to be endured when dying is something that any being with self-consciousness and a functioning nervous system would want to avoid. In addition, the emotional and psychological ties and tasks that we leave behind is something else that we seek to avoid. Beyond this, why is death nothing to fear? Well, simple. Ask yourself...do you remember anything before you were born? No. That is exactly how being dead feels like. NOTHING! You wouldn't even know that you are dead. (Anyone who does combat sports and has been choked out/knocked out would know what I am talking about, :P)

And if I were to know that I was to die. Sure. I will be sad....but I promise myself that I will only be sad for a while. And I will then rally myself to spend my last days effectively....to add value to the lives of others. As much as I have taken and benefited from others during my existence, it is then my moral duty to give back as much as I can and it would be selfish not to do so when I do know that I am going to die. That would be a good death.

Divine guidance? Divine inspiration? Spiritual consolation? Spiritual strength? These all originate from your mind and your mind is but a product of your brain which means that you have everything that you need in yourself to find strength and inspiration to overcome adversity.

So the next time you encounter pain/crisis.....Pray? Nah. Get off your butt and do something productive and tangible. Positive actions WILL improve our world

--More on Animal intelligence---

More good stuff from NOVA documentaries.

Bonobos and Chimps can cooperate on tasks but chimps will stop cooperating if the rewards are placed in one container. Bonobos will still go ahead and cooperate and share if the rewards were placed in one container.

Chimps can learn to ask for help when faced with tasks and help human researchers with task (which they understand the goal of).

 Chimps also can understand the actions of other chimps to be good and/or bad...they will then sabotage the other chimps if they did a bad action and innocent chimps would not be punished.

Chimps can also learn to recognise numbers as symbols and how they ascend/descend in pattern.

Apes learn by copying. There is a group of chimps who have learned (via copying) how to make and use spears to hunt bush-babies. They also have learned to enjoy taking baths in shallow water bodies. Thus ape groups have culture.

But emotions and impulsive actions deny chimps greater success in cooperation. Chimps consistently are unable to control choosing bigger rewards even though they were always given less as a result. The understanding of delayed gratification and better control over our emotions give us the edge in cooperative tasks.

Dogs are less volatile, more interested in human behavior/actions and more tolerant towards humans as compared to wolves. Border Collies are even able to make inferences when the information that they have doesn't gel with the orders that they have been given. The gene CTNND2 in the dog genome is found in the genome of Border Collies and is important in humans for cognitive development.

Octopus can learn how to undo puzzles in order to get to food. They also use their mental processing in order to put on camouflage to deceive predators. Pattern, color (brightness) and 3 dimensional shape are accomplished by octopus in 7/10s of a second. Octopus have also used environmental tools to hide and ambush prey: this shows cognitive planning.

Alex the parrot (1976-2007) was an ordinary bird who was trained by Dr Irene Pepperberg with items and names. He was very inquisitive, could make requests and identify similarities and differences. He could even combine symbols in new ways to create meaning (he termed cake as "yummy bread" when he first tried it) and simple maths. He had the intelligence level of a 5/6 years old child.