An article published in the journal “Sciences Advances” reports a study on the eyes of Anomalocaris briggsi, a radiodon that lived about 515 million years ago, in the Cambrian period. Fossils discovered in the Emu Bay Shale, Australia, were so well preserved that they retained the their eye structure, which was found to be similar to that of their arthropod cousins and consisted of over 13,000 lenses. A team of researchers led by Dr. John Paterson of the University of New England, New South Wales, Australia, conducted a thorough examination of these fossil eyes. The conclusion is that Anomalocaris briggsi had excellent eyesight and that vision already played a crucial role in that ancient ecosystem.

An article published in the journal “Scientific Reports” reports a study on the eyes of a fossil of Aulacopleura kionickii, a species of trilobite that lived about 429 million years ago, which offers evidence that it had a vision comparable to that of its distant modern cousins, insects but also crustaceans. Dr. Brigitte Schoenemann of the University of Cologne, Germany, and Euan Clarkson of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, examined fossil eyes using digital microscopy to find in those compound eyes structures similar to those that exist today in bees, dragonflies, and many crustaceans with diurnal habits.