Question

Vertebrate eyes are a pretty poor anatomical structure. Give 2 reasons why.

Answer 1

The vertebrate eye is poorly engineered as the photoreceptor cells are located past the nerve fibres and the incoming light have to go through these nerve fibres to reach retina. This results in blocking of some light by the nerve fibres. This results in the blind spot. Also, the photoreceptor cells of vertebrate eye are oriented away from the incoming light, though this is to allow blood vessels to reach the cells without obstructing retina, the design is poor as compared to invertebrates.