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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social

i'm tentatively planning a clade of things which are related to the [metal eaters], with either holoptic compound eyes (two which meet in the middle) or a single compound eye, probably schizochroal with in-eye depth perception.

aug 30, 2025, 3:47 am • 4 0

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social

schizochroal eyes existed once in trilobites and something similar exists in one group of flies. they're a family of compound eyes with fairly separate lenses. i've seen some people conjecture they evolved for good depth perception or dim light.

aug 30, 2025, 4:10 am • 1 0 • view
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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social

each individual unit (ommatidium) had a calcite(!) lens and likely could focus light fairly well internally. but what do you do with that much data? who knows! i'm not a specialist but i'd hazard you could get good info about things like depth by comparisons across the eye locally.

aug 30, 2025, 4:10 am • 1 0 • view
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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social

my favorite reference is this: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

aug 30, 2025, 4:10 am • 5 0 • view
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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social

this site has some neat info on trilobites specifically. www.trilobites.info/eyes.htm look at the images here of Erbenochile erbeni! how beautiful. a lot of schizochroal eyes were mounted to give a wide field of view.

aug 30, 2025, 4:10 am • 2 0 • view