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Inside the Trilobite’s Eye
Exploring an optical and evolutionary oddity: how long-extinct sea creatures viewed the world through calcite eyes.
[Getty Images]
The eyes of trilobites are extremely interesting. They come in at least three structures—holochroal, schizochroal and abathochroal—and possibly more, depending on who you talk to. Some trilobites were eyeless, like Trimerocephalus, while some, like Neoasaphus, had eyes on stalks, like snails. Others sported immensely tall, columnar eyes. The tiny ocean invertebrates lived over a period of 300 million years during the Paleozoic era, disappearing before the dinosaurs arrived.
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