Even Charles Darwin admitted, the eye is a highly complex organ and it seemed difficult to accept that it could have evolved over countless generations. But the eye above, with structures resembling a cornea, iris, and retina – have been found in a SINGLE CELL ORGANISM called a warnowiid. This dinoflagellate looks like a miniature sperm cell or tadpole
But it isn’t even part of the animal kingdom – it’s technically an algae that moves – in effect, a plant, even though it moves around and eats other smaller single-celled organisms. This is how it acquired the DNA for eye parts – it stole them from bacteria, red algae, and other microbes its ancestors digested and absorbed. Parts no larger than a handful of molecules that were once meant for photosynthesis (turning light into energy) are now used to turn light into images. The result is a moving hunter-killer single cell algae plant with an eye, and it’s shedding a lot of insight (no pun intended) into the evolution of eyes.
If interested in more, read these articles in National Geographic and Cosmos
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