Biology Commons^™

Avian Binocularity And Adaptation To Nocturnal Environments: Genomic Insights Froma Highly Derived Visual Phenotype, Rui Borges, Joao Fonseca, Cidalia Gomes, Warren E. Johnson, Stephen James O'Brien, Guojie Zhang, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Erich D. Jarvis, Agostinho Antunes

Biology Faculty Articles

Typical avian eyes are phenotypically engineered for photopic vision (daylight). In contrast, the highly derived eyes of the barn owl (Tyto alba) are adapted for scotopic vision (dim light). The dramatic modifications distinguishing barn owl eyes from other birds include: 1) shifts in frontal orientation to improve binocularity, 2) rod-dominated retina, and 3) enlarged corneas and lenses. Some of these features parallel mammalian eye patterns, which are hypothesized to have initially evolved in nocturnal environments. Here, we used an integrative approach combining phylogenomics and functional phenotypes of 211 eye-development genes across 48 avian genomes representing most avian orders, …