Animal Eyes (Oxford Animal Biology) [Paperback]

Michael F. Land (Author), Dan-Eric Nilsson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198509685 | ISBN-13: 978-0198509684 | Publication Date: February 7, 2002

This is a comprehensive account of all known types of animal eyes. Taking diversity of optical mechanisms as a framework, it also discusses aspects of structure and function of eyes, including visual ecology, design philosophy, properties of light critical to vision, factors in eye adaptation and capabilities of a wide variety of eye types.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book will appeal to a broad readership, including undergraduates in courses that involve vision and sensory physiology and postgraduates and research biologists studying vision, as well as ophthalmologists who seek wider knowledge, and physicists and engineers with an interest in optical mechanisms in the natural world. Authors Land and Nilsson (whose affiliations are not stated) start out with the origins of vision on earth and the evolution of sight, and then discuss aquatic eyes and the eyes of land animals, mirrors and reflectors of the eye, compound eyes, superposition eyes, and eye movements. Four color plates and hundreds of line drawings and cross-sections show the functions of different types of eyes."--SciTech Book News

About the Author

Michael F Land is at Professor of Neurobiology, University of Sussex, UK. Dan-Eric Nilsson is at Professor of Zoology, University of Lund, Sweden.

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198509685
• ISBN-13: 978-0198509684
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #219,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darwin's Scariest Problem: Origin of the Eyeball, May 17, 2002

By 

Jack Pettigrew (Brisbane, Q. Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animal Eyes (Oxford Animal Biology) (Paperback)

This book is a treasure for anyone with an interest in the puzzle that fascinated and terrified Darwin:- the origins of such an exquisitely-designed and multi-purpose structure as the eye.

In succinct and accessible prose, supplemented by 130 superb graphics and 16 colour plates, these two genius-savants of the world of eyeballs share 60 years of acquired wisdom about the breathtaking diversity of eyes on our planet, where even today new kinds of optical arrangements are being discovered in the eyes of different creatures.

Both authors have made numerous discoveries of new kinds of eyes and came together professionally when they independently discovered an image-forming system that uses mirrors instead lenses. In the book they share their extensive knowledge of eyes in a straight-talking and approachable way without talking down to the reader, yet without using specialist jargon. The clean graphics equal the text in weight and importance if one bears in mind the old adage about pictures being worth thousands of words, .......especially pictures like these, which cannot be drawn without a perfect understanding of the optical world being illustrated. Even if one has little knowledge of optics, the clear diagrams enable one to grasp the essential details of the different eye designs. There are also "boxes" outside the main text for those who would like added details about lens systems and optical design. Engineers may be interested to discover that different animals independently "invented" most of the optical designs currently being used in man-made devices, and that some discoveries, such as the box-mirror design without lenses, have been successfully used in industry after being inspired by the discoveries in animals of these two biologists.

The book sets the diversity of optical design into an evolutionary framework which helps to reduce the immensity of the puzzle with which Darwin originally grappled, while perhaps adding some new aspects. We still have some distance to go to understand the origins of many aspects of the diversity of eye design, particularly how multi-purpose eyes appeared that seem to combine, into the one design, all the specialized solutions seen in different animals . The book highlights such questions, and answers others, in a particularly clear way that may owe something to the authors' expertize with straight-tending paths of light.

The book is also very timely, given the vigorous current debate about the evolution of eyes and the possibility of a single "master gene" (pax6) that initiates the development of all kinds of eyes. This book is essential, fascinating reading for anyone interested in that debate if they are to be aware of the mind-boggling variety of eyes and optical systems involved. Even if that hot debate does not interest you, there is enormous satisfaction to be gained in contemplating these radically different solutions adopted by animals to image their worlds.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars stinky, but informative, February 10, 2008

By 

Dr. Eigenvalue (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animal Eyes (Oxford Animal Biology) (Paperback)

For some reason people often quote Darwin as being especially uncertain about whether the existence of the eye was a problem for his theory of evolution. But he actually spent some time analyzing how eyes could evolve. Here's what he said:

"Reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a simple and imperfect eye to one complex and perfect can be shown to exist, each grade being useful to its possessor, as is certain the case; if further, the eye ever varies and the variations be inherited, as is likewise certainly the case; and if such variations should be useful to any animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, should not be considered as subversive of the theory."

It turns out that he was right -- the current best estimate for the time to evolve a "camera" eye from a light-sensitive spot is about 500,000 years. Piece of cake.

Because eyes are relative easy to evolve, and because lighting conditions differ substantially across the planet, there is a great variety of eyes to be found and studied. That's what this fascinating book is about. The structure and function of eyes are determined by two main constraints: the ecological niche inhabited by the organism and, of course, optics. The main challenges are to capture enough light to enable the animal to see accurately and to focus the light so as to maximize resolution. Thus the balance between sensitivity and acuity will be determined by the environment in which the animal lives (and of course natural selection). It helps to know a bit about optics before tackling the book (or to be willing to look up the basics).

I have a somewhat unusual complaint about this book: It smells bad, apparently because of chemicals used in the production of the color plates inserted into the middle. Control experiments with other books failed to support the null hypothesis that the smell was coming from me or my immediate environment.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating variation across the animal kingdom, January 24, 2005

By 

Anne Millikan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animal Eyes (Oxford Animal Biology) (Paperback)

This book started with 'what makes a good eyeball' and went on to describe the amazingly different arrangements for vision with examples from animals like hawks, scallops, shrimp and cats. I wouldn't agree with a previous reviewer that the book is jargon-free, but I was richly rewarded for blowing past the unexplained biology words like 'phototaxis' or the optical calculations. The illustrations clearly explain the concepts.

This book is a rare find - fascinating throughout, it gave me a deeper understanding of the variety of solutions life will find.