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In The Land Of The Blind
The one-eyed man is king.
An Australian biologist has come up with a theory that the Cambrian explosion was a rapidly-escalating arms race catalyzed by the development of the first creature with vision.
Without giving it a lot of thought, it seems plausible, and intriguing. As he says, imagine all of these creatures evolving in a darkened room, when all of a sudden, someone flicks the light switch. It would be a radical and sudden change in the environment and evolutionary pressures.
Posted by Rand Simberg at August 30, 2003 12:46 PM
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Comments
Oddly enough, it seems a self-evident theory to me.
I've long thought that the development of vision probably was a spark that created radical changes all over the place, and must have sped up evolution significantly at some point.
Posted by Dean Esmay at September 2, 2003 02:52 AM
Doesn't have to be predator-prey either. Vision is used in sex/mating rituals to determine health and fitness to breed.
Posted by snore at September 6, 2003 10:56 PM
Simon Conway Morris, one of the pioneers of the famous Burgess Shale fauna dismantles the theory here.
Posted by Duncan Young at September 8, 2003 10:36 PM
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