Abstract

It is widely accepted that eyes have evolved dozens of times within the animal tree of life. However, the majority of research to date has, understandably, focussed on arthropod and vertebrate vision, which exhibit some of the greatest functional variation. Visual systems, and photoreception more widely, remain enigmatic in some groups and almost unexplored in others. Where we are beginning to understand more about these less familiar systems, it is becoming increasingly clear that they can be strikingly different to those in model groups.

Dr Sumner-Rooney will discuss what defines eyes and vision in different animal groups, examine some of the recent advances made in marine invertebrates such as molluscs, and present ongoing work on a unique dispersed visual system that appears in several forms within the echinoderms (sea stars, sea urchins and relatives).

Biography

Lauren is a research fellow at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. She completed her PhD at Queen’s University Belfast on photoreceptor systems in marine molluscs before taking a post-doctoral fellowship to study vision in echinoderms at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. Lauren’s work integrates comparative and functional morphology, behaviour and physiology to explore the mechanisms underlying vision in invertebrate groups, and the evolution of vision in different light environments.

http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/research/lauren_sumnerrooney.htm