The Eyes of Bohemian Trilobites
Vol.18,No.1(2011)
There are trilobites of the Bohemian area, which belong to the best preserved in the world. Their compound eyes were first studied in detail by Hawle and Corda in 1847, but especially by Barrande (1852, 1872), whose original observations are still of great value. More recently both holochroal and schizochroal eyes have been documented from Bohemian material, their visual fields plotted, growth geometry established, and thin-sections and polished surfaces used for determining the internal structure of the lenses. Modern physiological methods have great potential for determining the nature of the light environment to which even extinct animals were adapted, and thus have an important bearing on their ecology. The use of the eye parameter, which can be determined from the diameter and angle between adjacent lenses is discussed here. This approach, along with further detailed structural investigations should allow many new insights to accrue over the next few years.
Trilobite; Barrandian area; Vision; Compound Eyes; Palaeozoic