Exceptional preservation of eye structure in arthropod visual predators from the Middle Jurassic

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10320
• Publication Date: 2016-01-19T18:40:33Z
• Authors: Jean Vannier; Brigitte Schoenemann; Thomas Gillot; Sylvain Charbonnier; Euan Clarkson
• Keywords: Arthropod; Fossil Record; Biota

Abstract Vision has revolutionized the way animals explore their environment and interact with each other rapidly became a major driving force in animal evolution. However, direct evidence of how ancient could perceive is extremely difficult to obtain because internal eye structures are almost never fossilized. Here, we reconstruct unprecedented resolution three-dimensional structure huge compound 160-million-year-old thylacocephalan arthropod from La Voulte exceptional fossil biota SE France. This had about 18,000 lenses on eye, which record among extinct extant arthropods surpassed only by modern dragonflies. Combined information its eyes, organs gut contents obtained X-ray microtomography lead conclusion that this was visual hunter probably adapted illuminated environments, thus contradicting hypothesis deep-water environment.