First Life

Fossil fish eye has 300 million-year-old rods and cones

Oldest evidence found of color vision cells

preserved fish

BETTER TO SEE YOU WITH  The dark spots that once contained eyes in this beautifully preserved fish still have evidence of the rods and cones required for color vision. 

G. Tanaka et al/Nature Communications 2014

By Bethany Brookshire

- More than 2 years ago

Examining the eye of a beautifully preserved specimen of the ancient jawed fish Acanthodes bridgei from a 300 million-year-old rock formation in Kansas, scientists have found the first evidence of fossilized rods and cones.