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.
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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
my favorite reference is this: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
aug 30, 2025, 4:10 am • 5 0 • view
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