Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin Chapter 9: Vision Rebecca Saionz AP Bio – 9/13/10
What do humans and Old World monkeys have in common? Detailed kind of color vision – Three different kinds of light receptors, each attuned to a different kind of light – Other mammals only have two – Allows us to distinguish more colors
What is the benefit of color vision? This kind of color vision arose about 55 million years ago Fossil evidence from this same time reveals changes in Earth’s flora – greater diversity of plants, likely with different colors
The Genes Responsible for Vision The Drosophila eyeless gene The mouse Pax 6 gene – “Master control” for the development/formation of eyes – Mutation can cause ocular defects, producing creatures with small eyes or no eyes at all