Re: [Blog] Evolution-16: The evolution of the eye

Ye Old One wrote:

Mano Singham's Web Journal.
Evolution-16: The evolution of the eye.

http://blog.case.edu/singham/2007/07/30/evolution16_the_evolution_of_the_eye
[snip]

The computer scientists Dan Nilsson and Susanne Pelger simulated a
three-layer slab of virtual skin resembling a light-sensitive spot on
a primitive organism.

I'm not sure where this urban legend comes from. Nilsson and Pelger
aren't computer scientists, but biologists. While they may have done
some kind of simulation, the last time I looked I could find out nothing
about it.

What they actually did, i.e. what was published in their important
paper, was create mathematical models demonstrating that a path of small
steps existed, each advantageous, from a patch of cells to a camera eye,
and then calculated, based on conservative assumptions, how many
generations it would take for that transformation if it were being
selectied for. No simulation, just computations based on models.

Conceivably simulations came later, but I'm unable to find anything
published on it, and there was nothing on Nilsson's web site last I
checked, maybe a year ago.

The reference to know is Nilsson, D., and S. Pelger. 1994. A pessimistic
estimate of the time required for an eye to evolve. Proc. R. Soc. Lond.
B 256:53-58.

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