Evolution of the eye

The evolution of the eye has been a subject of significant study, as a

distinctive example of a homologous organ present in a wide variety of
species.
The development of the eye is considered by most experts to be monophyletic; that is, all modern
eyes, varied as they are, have their origins in a proto-eye believed to have evolved some 540 million
years ago.
The majority of the process is believed to have taken only a few million years, as the first predator to
gain true imaging would have touched off an "arms race".[citation needed] Prey animals and
competing predators alike would be forced to rapidly match or exceed any such capabilities to
survive.
Hence multiple eye types and subtypes developed in parallel.
Eyes in various animals show adaption to their requirements.
For example, birds of prey have much greater visual acuity than humans and some, like diurnal birds
of prey, can see ultraviolet light.
The different forms of eye in, for example, vertebrates and mollusks are often cited as examples of
parallel evolution.
As far as the vertebrate/mollusk eye is concerned, intermediate, functioning stages have existed in
nature, which is also an illustration of the many varieties and peculiarities of eye construction.
In the monophyletic model, these variations are less illustrative of non-vertebrate types such as the
arthropod (compound) eye, but as those eyes are simpler to begin with, there are fewer intermediate
stages to find.