Did we lose our ability to see in infrared light ? Or we never had it to begin with ? Does DNA mutations has to do something with it because some have blue eyes instead of brown and they say this is because DNA mutation happened only once in Europe somewhere.

Question

Those animals who hunt in night need vision in infrared light. So, were they first night hunters and then developed vision in infrared (due to mutation in DNA ?) and stayed with them forever according to Darwin’s theory (survival of the fittest) or they realized they had infrared vision and so why not hunt in night only ?

In: Biology

Answer 1

“Those animals who hunt in night need vision in infrared light”

actually no they don’t, true infrared sensitivy requires specialized organs(ie: snakes) and its not in their eyes and even then, they are actually seeing out of these organs, at best they can sense the direction the infrared radiation is coming from.

what these animals actually have is an additional structure inside their eye that helps them trap more light in the eye allowing to see better in low light conditions(this is why animals like house cats’s eyes glow at night btw), they still work within the visible light spectrum.

humans never really had this kind of ability neither did our known ancestors or any regular mammal.