What is the purpose of eyelashes and how did they evolve?

Answer 1

Eyelashes keep dust and other particles out of your eyes.

Answer 2

An eyelash or simply lash is one of the hairs that grow at the edge of the eyelid. Eyelashes protect the eye from debris and perform some of the same function as whiskers do on a cat or a mouse in the sense that they are sensitive to being touched, thus providing a warning that an object (such as an insect or dust mote) is near the eye (which is then closed reflexively). Strong light passing through the eyelashes can be diffracted before entering the eye, appearing as fringes of spectral light surrounding the shadows of the lashes. Eyelashes may also be "fluttered", as a form of non-verbal communication.

Answer 3

Function Of Eyelashes

Answer 4

Eyelashes protect the eye from debris and perform some of the same function as whiskers do on a cat or a mouse in the sense that they are sensitive to being touched, thus providing a warning that an object (such as an insect or dust mote) is near the eye (which is then closed reflexively). Strong light passing through the eyelashes can be diffracted before entering the eye, appearing as fringes of spectral light surrounding the shadows of the lashes. Eyelashes may also be "fluttered", as a form of non-verbal communication.

Answer 5

Eyelashes protect the eyes from nasty foriegn matter. I have no idea as to how they evolved. But heres a theory on eyeballs from darwin:

To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree. Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist; if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited, which is certainly the case; and if any variation or modification in the organ be ever useful to an animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, can hardly be considered real.

Answer 6

Its like the same question as of eyebrows. Eyelashes also protect the eyes from dirt and other small particles present in the air. And as to how they evolved, I don't know b'coz I think the whole body is formed at one time. I don't think they evolve gradually by growth.

Answer 7

The process of evolution occurs on a time scale much longer than what humans can observe--tens of thousands or up to millions of years. Note that all recorded human history is not much more than 5000 years, nowhere near long enough for any type of evolutionary development. Things like eyebrows and eyelashes probably evolved a million years ago when they DID serve a life saving purpose. By the way, this purpose does not have to be a matter of life and death itself, but *on average* if creatures with eyebrows found more mates and and had more children than creatures without eyebrows, then the eyebrow ones would be chosen by natural selection. Maybe eyebrows are there because they make us attractive to a mate? Point is: it doesn't have to be life and death. As long as the trait is something that results in more offspring, or healthier ones, then it will dominate over the millennia and will be carried forward by evolutionary processes.

Answer 8

As with my answer for eyebrows, the eyelashes evolved from the original scalp hair which covered the whole head. You will note that through the evolutionary process, generally the most useful elements are kept and the less useful ones are discarded. I reckon in another thousand years our small toes will disappear completely.

Answer 9

Eyelashes are a distinctive feature between human people. According to [2],the insertion of the eyelashes is hidden amongst Japanese. In some tribes, people strip their eylashes.

Answer 10

Eyelashes are common to all mammals - their purpose is to keep wind-blown debris out of the eyes. Like all evolutionary development, those initial species that mutated and developed eyelashes developed a survival advantage. As more animals with eyelashes survived, it became a dominant trait and now is universal in hair bearing animals.

Answer 11

Eyelashes protect the eye by keeping falling dust and small airborne debris from falling into the eye.