An ancient tower-eyed trilobite with dozens of calcite lenses. Trilobites evolved a wide variety of eye forms. Trilobites lived between 521 and 252 million years ago. They were one of the first groups ...

Pairs of eyes are visible on the heads of these trilobites, Cambropallas telesto, from 520 million years ago. Trilobite compound eyes are the earliest well-preserved visual surfaces in the fossil ...

Before eyes, life was gentler and tamer, dominated by sluggish soft-bodied creatures lolling around in the sea. The invention of the eye ushered in a more brutal and competitive world.