HOW DOES THE WORLD LOOK THROUGH 100 EYES?

Eyes evolved around 540 million years ago in a now-extinct marine animal, the trilobite. When the bay scallop (Argopecten irradians) came along several hundred million years later, it was equipped with 100 brilliant blue eyes.

Each eye has a mirrored layer that serves as a focusing lens and improves its chances of capturing the light. This enables the scallops to detect light and dark as well as motion, and it warns them of predators such as starfish, which share their habitats in subtidal zones and the water of bays and harbors. Found in declining numbers since the 1950s, this edible mollusk is at home in the northwest Atlantic from Cape Cod to the Gulf of Mexico.