Professor Lars Schmitz’ research on the role of expanded eyesight on the evolution of fish was characterized in a clever, three-minute animation.
New research by Assistant Professor of Biology Lars Schmitz suggests that a聽near tripling of eye size might be what triggered fish聽about 385 million years ago to make the evolutionary leap from water to land. 聽Schmitz and Professor Malcolm MacIver of Northwestern University and their team’s study, “,” was published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Larger eyes looking farther, and above water,聽to a larger range聽of unexploited prey may have been key in driving crocodile-like fish to evolve into the first vertebrates on land. The publication is accompanied by that presents their findings with humor and clarity.