{"id":17288,"date":"2019-10-01T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T07:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=17288"},"modified":"2024-03-22T13:37:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T12:37:48","slug":"potw1940","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/","title":{"rendered":"The evolution of the eye"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Model organisms are species that are studied extensively to understand particular biological phenomena and processes, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The small marine ringed worm <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Platynereis dumerilii<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> gained interest as a lab organism because of the dependency of its reproduction on the lunar cycle. For optimal breeding conditions in the lab, the worms experience summer all year round \u2013 they\u2019re exposed to 16 hours of light and 8 hours of total darkness each day.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists use <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Platynereis<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dumerilii<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to study the development of its eyes \u2013 the simplest amongst all animals, consisting of only two cells. As <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Platynereis<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dumerilii<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is one of the oldest species still existing, studying this ringed worm&#8217;s eyes also means studying the developmental evolution of eyes in general.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"vf-figure wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_fullres.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"2048\" class=\"vf-figure__image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_fullres.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17290\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_fullres.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_fullres-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_fullres-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_fullres-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_fullres-1024x1024.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"vf-figure__caption\">Credit: Paola Bertucci\/EMBL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a stunning picture of your science, your lab or your site, you can submit it&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:mathias.jaeger@embl.de\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Model organisms are species that are studied extensively to understand particular biological phenomena and processes, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. The small marine ringed worm Platynereis dumerilii gained&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":17291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,17591],"tags":[927,184,820,926,911],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-17288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-picture-of-the-week","category-science-technology","tag-eye","tag-model-organism","tag-picture-of-the-week","tag-platynereis-dumerilii","tag-worm"],"acf":{"article_intro":"","related_links":false,"article_sources":false,"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53","show_featured_image":false,"field_target_display":"embl","field_article_language":{"value":"english","label":"English"},"source_article":false,"in_this_article":false,"press_contact":"None","article_translations":false,"languages":""},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The evolution of the eye | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The evolution of the eye | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Model organisms are species that are studied extensively to understand particular biological phenomena and processes, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. The small marine ringed worm Platynereis dumerilii gained&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-01T07:00:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-22T12:37:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Patrick Mueller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Patrick Mueller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Patrick Mueller\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/20e24fdaf3fdbf34c02236ad1afe73f2\"},\"headline\":\"The evolution of the eye\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-01T07:00:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-22T12:37:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/\"},\"wordCount\":163,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"eye\",\"model organism\",\"picture of the week\",\"platynereis dumerilii\",\"worm\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Picture of the week\",\"Science &amp; Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/\",\"name\":\"The evolution of the eye | EMBL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-01T07:00:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-22T12:37:48+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg\",\"width\":620,\"height\":425},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory News\",\"description\":\"News from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"EMBL News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory\",\"alternateName\":\"EMBL\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":144,\"caption\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/embl\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embl_org\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/15813\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/emblmedia\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/20e24fdaf3fdbf34c02236ad1afe73f2\",\"name\":\"Patrick Mueller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24739494f91b03d101e01994c63f75748a8dc8f0e98b15608fec8a181563d338?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24739494f91b03d101e01994c63f75748a8dc8f0e98b15608fec8a181563d338?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Patrick Mueller\"},\"description\":\"Patrick is a press and outreach coordinator at EMBL. During his MSc in physics, he shot laser onto things and fell in love with research and journalism. Now, he excites others for science.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/author\/patrick-mueller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The evolution of the eye | EMBL","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The evolution of the eye | EMBL","og_description":"Model organisms are species that are studied extensively to understand particular biological phenomena and processes, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. The small marine ringed worm Platynereis dumerilii gained&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/","og_site_name":"EMBL","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/","article_published_time":"2019-10-01T07:00:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-03-22T12:37:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":620,"height":425,"url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Patrick Mueller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@embl","twitter_site":"@embl","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Patrick Mueller","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/"},"author":{"name":"Patrick Mueller","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/20e24fdaf3fdbf34c02236ad1afe73f2"},"headline":"The evolution of the eye","datePublished":"2019-10-01T07:00:50+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-22T12:37:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/"},"wordCount":163,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg","keywords":["eye","model organism","picture of the week","platynereis dumerilii","worm"],"articleSection":["Picture of the week","Science &amp; Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/","name":"The evolution of the eye | EMBL","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg","datePublished":"2019-10-01T07:00:50+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-22T12:37:48+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/picture-of-the-week\/potw1940\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg","width":620,"height":425},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/","name":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory News","description":"News from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization"},"alternateName":"EMBL News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization","name":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory","alternateName":"EMBL","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png","width":300,"height":144,"caption":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/","https:\/\/x.com\/embl","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embl_org\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/15813\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/emblmedia\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/20e24fdaf3fdbf34c02236ad1afe73f2","name":"Patrick Mueller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24739494f91b03d101e01994c63f75748a8dc8f0e98b15608fec8a181563d338?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24739494f91b03d101e01994c63f75748a8dc8f0e98b15608fec8a181563d338?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Patrick Mueller"},"description":"Patrick is a press and outreach coordinator at EMBL. During his MSc in physics, he shot laser onto things and fell in love with research and journalism. Now, he excites others for science.","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/author\/patrick-mueller\/"}]}},"field_target_display":"embl","field_article_language":{"value":"english","label":"English"},"fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg","featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/potw1940_preview.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17288"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20039,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17288\/revisions\/20039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17288"},{"taxonomy":"embl_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/embl_taxonomy?post=17288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}