Origins of 'sight' discovered?

Question

Ok so if this is true..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20071019/sc_livescience/originofvisiondiscovered


Are they saying we mutated from 'Hydras' or how else did the gene's infect other species with this light sensing gene? sounds like a load of baloney to me..

It is baloney, just as we are apparently the only intelligent species on the planet with the capacity for self awareness, I find no logic to nature developing a brain that has anything but an intrinsic will to survive which works perfectly fine for all other species. I don't take it as a random accident at all

Answer 1

Very interesting article ! Have thought about the cases for evolution for some time and it seems quite clear to me. If we were all identical we could surmise that evolution does not exist, but we are not and it does.

Over time man has created many Gods for one reason or another, but mainly because he did not want to die or have the ones he loves die. He then has tried to kill those who worship the same God in a different way. Man created God. The church and God bring a positive benefit to our lives, but he only exist in out spirit and mind.

Perhaps each of the ten plagues was presented to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of each of the Egyptian ten god’s. Osiris was the Egyptian god of the Nile. The Egyptians believed that Osiris gave life and sustenance to the people because the Nile itself was the vital life-source of ancient Egypt. The first plague was Blood. The waters of the Nile turned to the symbol of death, blood. That was a sign of G-d’s superiority over Osiris.

AMEN !
The name of the Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus was Amenophis, more commonly called Amenhotep. His son and successor, Akenaten, did away with the Egyptian collection of gods and taught a monotheistic religion throughout the land. That God was the SUN!

Answer 2

It's not a load of baloney. The development of the eye has been pretty well researched and the origins of vision discovered to have happened in many tiny, tiny steps over 100s of millions of years. Other answers provide details. Even many of the creationists have given up on this one as a "proof that evolution never happened".

Compare this happening through natural processes to the preposterous belief in an invisible, omnipotent, all-seeing, god living somewhere (we don't know where), for which there is no evidence whatsoever and maybe mutation from Hydras will sound less like baloney.

Answer 3

Today's hydras and humans and all animals with opsins for vision all evolved from an hydra-like organism about 600 million years ago. Before that, no organisms had opsins for sensing light. Since then, opsins have become very common, providing an evolutionary advantage for survival of countless different species. It's pretty simple.

The only other ways for genes to be incorporated is horizontal transfer via viruses or bacterial that infect an organism and manage to integrate into the organism's genome.

Answer 4

A single nucleobase mutation that resulted in an opsin protein was merely the first step in vision. We can see from studying comparative morphology that the next step was a photosensitive cell, then photosensitive cells in an eye cup, then an eye cup with a pin-point opening forming a crude lens, etc., etc., all the way to vertebrate eyes. It is imporantant to realize that nature never had any design in mind for an eye, rather each step is someting that increases the fitness for survival.

Answer 5

Many organisms share similar compounds in their photosensory structures.
For example, carotenoids are accessory pigments in photosynthesis - and the photosensory proteins in your eyes use a derivative of beta-carotene to actually sense the light!

So perhaps we "stole" the gene from plants... ;-)
Alternatively, perhaps photoperception was useful before plants and animals diverged from each other - and each branch kept the same basic mechanism after they evolved separately?
Interestingly, the same gene regulator protein (Pax-6) is used to control eye development in a wide variety of different organisms - from fruitflies to humans.

And one thing to remember about the Hydra is that it (along with jellyfish and similar organisms) is actually one of the most primitive animals around. *All* more "advanced" animals species (sea urchins, fruitflies, fish, humans, earthworms, etc.) have three body layers - the ectoderm, the mesoderm, and the endoderm. Hydra and jellyfish only have two - the ectoderm and the endoderm (or "gastroderm"). We *all* evolved from them.

Answer 6

When you say it sounds like "Baloney to me" you are indicating that your mind is closed to new information. So why are you posting on ANSWERS?
Eyes have evolved many, many times. And your remote ancestors were simple organisms. Most animals evolved from a marine worm: mouth, digestive track, anus. Everything else is add-ons. Before that your ancestors were single celled organisms like amoebas. Before that yeasts. You are part of a branch of life that extends unbroken back to the very origin of life. And you deny it. How utterly sad.