But even with these conservative assumptions, the time taken to evolve a fish eye from flat skin was minuscule: fewer than 400,000 generations. For the kinds of small animals we are talking about, we can assume one generation per year, so it seems that it would take less than half a million years to evolve a good camera eye.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Evolutionary changes like the eye can happen relatively quickly in geological terms, challenging ideas of impossibility.
- In plain terms
- Evolving a complex eye took less than half a million years, which is fast for evolution.
- What can you take from it?
- Complex biological structures can arise through gradual natural selection quickly.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do we measure evolutionary speed?
Another view
The timeline relies on specific assumptions about generation times.
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