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Extreme preservation gives fly’s eye view

Ancient fly in amber sports sophisticated photoreceptor arrangement

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

The eyes had it, even 45 million years ago.

EYE SIGHT A long-legged fly stuck in amber for 45 million years (left) still has naturally reddish eyes with a sophisticated anti-reflection grating (right) and photoreceptors in open formations that efficiently caught light. IMAGE CREDIT: Gengo Tanaka

Two flies stuck in Baltic amber still have enough soft tissue to confirm predictions that their kind had already evolved a fancy, open array of photoreceptors, according to a paper published online December 16 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.