How Could a Camera Eye Evolve in a Worm?

The story of three annelid branches:
Why evolutionists claim they
took very different paths

 

by Jerry Bergman, PhD

One fact I learned after studying biology for most of my adult life is, life fails to fit into a perfect from-simple-to-complex hierarchy as Darwinism predicts. A good example (one of many) is a segmented worm, the annelid, specifically the polychaete worm.

This Mediterranean marine bristle annelid worm

exhibits eyesight comparable to that of rodents, enabling it to see UV light, focus on small moving objects, and presumably use this ability for nocturnal activities such as mating and hunting. … the worm’s eyes are exceptionally large, weighing about 20 times more than the rest of its head.”[1]

This annelid with human camera type eyes, evolutionists claim, evolved mammal-like vision. This evolution, as expected, has stunned scientists.[2]

If human eyes were proportionally as large as this worm’s, we would be unable to move our head to carry the extra 100-kg (220-lb.) weight of the eyes. Furthermore, judging from the eye’s design, its eyesight is as acute as that of mammals. As the illustration documents, its  bulky  mammal, camera eyes look grotesquely out of place on this tiny, transparent marine worm. The worms are nocturnal, thus their enormous mammal eyes may allow better night vision.

Polychaeta is a class of marine worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes. Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that have many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin.[3] The more than 10,000 species in this class are generally less than 10 cm (4 in.) in length.[4]

Analysis of the Eye

A careful analysis of the Polychaeta eye documented that it was a fully modern camera eye with a lens, a retina, and the supportive nerve structures:

Morphological and optical analysis of the eyes and lenses of the three species of alciopids revealed that the spherical lenses ranged between ∼150 and ∼550 μm in diameter…. The F-number (focal length/aperture or lens diameter) ranged between 1.2 and 1.45, with T. candida generally having longer focal lengths. … We saw no signs of spherical aberration, suggesting a graded refractive index in these lenses…. The lenses also appeared to have little or no chromatic aberration. Micro-CT images of T. candida and V. cf. formosa eyes showed a well-ordered receptor mosaic throughout the retina, with receptor densities equating to a sampling frequency between 0.5 and 1.5 cycles per degree… both species showed similar relative density patterns in vertical and horizontal transects through the retina, with higher densities in ventral and anterior regions. These results show that alciopid retinas are notable for achieving high anatomical acuities over a large field of view (>150°) when compared with other small invertebrates… human acuity rapidly drops to 10% of the maximum 20° from the center of the fovea.[5]

Those who work with cameras know that F1.2, and even F1.4, are excellent quality, even F1.8 refers to a high-quality lens. In conclusion, the research found “the eyes of alciopids possess the anatomical, morphological, and physiological properties requisite for high-resolution tasks and object vision. Previously only vertebrates, arthropods and cephalopods have been documented to possess object [camera] vision.”

Evolutionary Problems

The problem for evolution that these findings created include, ”How do we have a worm that is close to the base of the tree of life whose eyes have evolved to the top of the evolutionary tree?” The problem, in the author’s words, is

High-resolution object vision — the ability to separate, classify, and interact with specific objects in the environment against the visual background — has only been conclusively shown to have evolved in three of the thirty-five animal phyla: chordates, arthropods, and … cephalopods [the octopus].[6]

Parry wrote

Earthworms and leeches are worms [that] belong to a larger group called annelids [that] first evolved over 500 million years ago. Although they have soft bodies that rapidly succumb to decay upon death, annelids have left a rich fossil record in special and rare geological sites where features such as skin, guts and muscle tissue have been preserved. The fossilized remains of the soft parts of annelids are now known from a number of sites in the Cambrian Period (about 540 to 485 million years ago).[7]

He added the Cambrian Period

is an important time during the history of life in which the major groups of animals first appear in the fossil record and diversify rapidly. …  These earliest annelids are a type of worm called polychaetes, which means many bristles, in reference to the stout, hardened projections that sit at the ends of their fleshy limbs.

Ironically, Parry determined[8] not only is the eye a problem for the notion of chance development over time but also the “complexity in the annelid nervous system arose very early, and that many groups of living annelids that have simple nervous systems have lost traits over evolutionary time.”[9] In other words, according to evolutionists, de-evolution occurred. The researchers have been unable to explain by evolution “why exactly alciopids have evolved such spectacular eyes…. Further studies will be required to fully explain the visual ecology of the alciopids and why they, apparently alone amongst the annelids, have evolved the capacity for object vision.”[10]

Summary: The Tale of Three Annelid Families

One annelid family has not, according to the fossil record, evolved any further in 500 million years, and has become a living fossil. Another annelid family in 500 million years has evolved into humans with camera-like eyes. In a third annelid family, the body did not evolve, but the eye did, becoming a human-like, camera-type eye. As no evidence of evolution exists for the evolution of annelids, or humans, or annelids with camera type eyes, ex-nihilo creation is the only explanation. The living fossil with a human camera type eye appears to be an example of the Biotic Message suggested by Walter ReMine. He wrote that the natural biological world was purposefully created to look so designed in order to communicate the message that no evolutionary process could have been responsible for its origin.[11] The Polychaeta eye definitely required an intelligent designer!

References

[1]  University of Copenhagen, 2024.

[2] University of Copenhagen. “Discovery of Unusual Worm With Mammal-Like Vision Stuns Scientists.” https://scitechdaily.com/discovery-of-unusual-worm-with-mammal-like-vision-stuns-scientists/, 9 April 2024.

[3] Casadidio, C. “Chitin and chitosans: Characteristics, eco-friendly processes, and applications in cosmetic science.” Marine Drugs 17(6):369, June 2019.

[4] Glasby, C., et al., “Global diversity of polychaetes (Polychaeta: Annelida) in freshwater.” Hydrobiologia. The International Journal of Aquatic Sciences 595(1):107-115, 18 December 2007.

[5] Bok, M.J., A. Macali, and A. Garm. “High-resolution vision in pelagic polychaetes.” Current Biology 34(7):269-270, 8 April 2024.

[6] Bok, et al., 2024.

[7] Parry, L. “Discovering the earthworm’s half a billion year old cousin.” Oxford University.

https://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/blog/discovering-the-earthworms-half-a-billion-year-old-cousin.

[8] Parry, L., and J.B. Caron “Canadia spinosa and the early evolution of the annelid nervous system.” Science Advances 5(9):eaax5858, 11 September 2019.

[9] Vinther, J., L. Parry, D.E. Briggs, and P. Van Roy. “Ancestral morphology of crown-group molluscs revealed by a new Ordovician stem aculiferan.” Nature 542(7642):471-474, 6 February 2017.

[10] Bok, et al., 2024, p. 270.

[11] ReMine, W.J. The Biotic Message: Evolution Versus Message Theory. St. Paul, MN: St. Paul Science, 1993.

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Dr. Jerry Bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology for over 40 years at several colleges and universities including Bowling Green State University, Medical College of Ohio where he was a research associate in experimental pathology, and The University of Toledo. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Wayne State University in Detroit, the University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University. He has over 1,900 publications in 14 languages and 40 books and monographs. His books and textbooks that include chapters that he authored are in over 1,800 college libraries in 27 countries. So far over 80,000 copies of the 60 books and monographs that he has authored or co-authored are in print. For more articles by Dr Bergman, see his Author Profile.