The rise of eyes began with just one

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/science/evolution-vertebrate-eye.html

15•marojejian•9h ago

https://archive.ph/drNhb

Comments

marojejian•9h ago

Gift link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/science/evolution-vertebr...

hinkley•1h ago

Don't we have single celled organisms with more than one 'eye' now?

We've been able to sense light and shadow even before we became multicellular, didn't we? And this article seems to be implying rather otherwise.

emmelaich•1h ago

I was looking for that too. I'm sure I've read that single cell animals were sensitive to light (and/or heat). I guess it's a speculation though, because we'd have no physical evidence.

hinkley•1h ago

We know that modern flagellates can steer to or away from light. When they started doing that is, as you say, pretty difficult to establish since they haven't left archaeological evidence. Unlike shellfish.

emmelaich•1h ago

Speculation 1. The bicameral mind was created as a result.

Speculation 2. The earliest creatures with two eyes may have been conjoined twins -- which were more successful in life than their single-celled/bodied siblings.

theodorejb•13m ago

What benefit is an eye unless there is also the capability of processing and using the information? How would both evolve simultaneously?

doctoboggan•9m ago

A photosensitive patch of cells could be wired directly to motor cells/muscles on the opposite side, which would allow the organism to swim toward the light (maybe useful for feeding or migrating, etc.)

jimmytucson•8m ago

That “cyclopean” eye is described as a patch of light-sensitive cells.

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Comments

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