Equation 3 · One Gene, Forty Eyes: What Evo-Devo Did to the Convergence Story
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Symbol n
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which gives n 363{,}992 generations [ 4 ] . Assuming a generation time of one year, common for small and medium-sized aquatic animals, the authors state the headline result directly: a camera eye could evolve from a light-sensitive patch in less than 364,000 years [ 4 ] . Measured against a fossil record that places the first animal eyes at roughly the early Cambrian, about 550 million years ago, that is short enough for the transformation to have run more than fifteen hundred times over in the time actually available [ 4 ] .
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