Michael Bok

Dr. Michael Bok

Bio: I am a BBSRC Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Bristol, in the Ecology of Vision research group. I am interested in the unusual visual systems of a variety of marine invertebrates ranging from the rudimentary compound ocelli of fan worms to the spectacularly sophisticated eyes of mantis shrimp. My current work on fan worms aims to unravel the developmental, neurological, and behavioural factors that drove the evolution of these rudimentary eyes, and perhaps also influenced the origins of nature’s very first visual systems.

The Blurry Beginnings: What natures strangest eyes tell us about the origins and elaboration of vision

Abstract: Vision is a crucial sensory modality for most animals, and the initial evolution of eyes was one of the most significant innovations in metazoan history. Life evolved in the sea, so it is there that we must look in order to understand the factors that led to the development and elaboration of the first visual systems. Examining extant marine life we find a surprising diversity of eyes that mediate a profusion of visually guided behaviours. Two example in particular highlight the incredible flexibility of nature to produce and elaborate eyes; sabellid fan worms and mantis shrimp. Sabellids are sedentary polychaetes that live in tubes and filter-feed with tentacles sprouting from their heads. Since their heads do not leave their abodes, they have evolved a multitude of rudimentary compound eyes on the feeding tentacles themselves that vary wildly in structure and arrangement from one species to another. On the other side of the coin, mantis shrimp have adapted a typical crustacean eye into the most sophisticated visual sensory array in nature, yielding unique colour and polarisation visual capabilities. Drawing from these two disparate examples, we can highlight some of the fundamental ecological pressures and evolutionary innovations that likely drove the emergence of nature's first eyes.