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modern variation and evolutionary change in the hominin eye orbit

modern variation and evolutionary change in the hominin eye orbit

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CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION1.1 BackgroundThrough years of travel <strong>and</strong> research, Charles Darw<strong>in</strong> was able to provide a broadaccount of how species adapt <strong>and</strong> <strong>change</strong> over time. Despite this <strong>in</strong>valuable contribution,<strong>the</strong> technology of his time could not provide <strong>the</strong> tools necessary to answer questionsrelat<strong>in</strong>g to <strong>the</strong> mechanisms of <strong>in</strong>heritance or <strong>the</strong> way <strong>in</strong> which complex structures couldarise through <strong>the</strong> process of evolution. “To suppose that <strong>the</strong> <strong>eye</strong> with all its <strong>in</strong>imitablecontrivances for adjust<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> focus to different distances, for admitt<strong>in</strong>g different amountsof light, <strong>and</strong> for <strong>the</strong> correction of spherical <strong>and</strong> chromatic aberration, could have beenformed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> highest degree”(Darw<strong>in</strong>, 1859 pg. 227).In <strong>the</strong> 150 years s<strong>in</strong>ce this assertion, it has become much clearer how <strong>in</strong>cremental<strong>change</strong>s result <strong>in</strong> highly complex systems such as <strong>the</strong> <strong>eye</strong>. This <strong>in</strong>strument for ga<strong>the</strong>r<strong>in</strong>gvisual <strong>in</strong>formation from <strong>the</strong> natural environment is so useful <strong>in</strong> fact that it is estimated tohave arisen <strong>in</strong>dependently 65 times throughout <strong>the</strong> long history of life (Salv<strong>in</strong>i-Plawen &Mayr, 1961; Weiss, 2002). Even with <strong>the</strong> many stages of <strong>evolutionary</strong> development <strong>and</strong>multitude of environments to which it has adapted, <strong>the</strong> general form of <strong>the</strong> <strong>eye</strong> acrossdifferent organisms is remarkably similar.1

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