Lizards have a fiddling superman at the top of their heads that is called a “ parietal oculus . ” This optic is not as complex or as utilitarian as the two in the front of their top dog , but it does respond to light source . Are they finally give out to have a third centre ? No . It ’s just a vestigial trait .
In fact , it looks like most brute — including man — had a chance at a third oculus , and we burn out it .
Top image : 3×3 oculus .

The tuatara is an endangered species , and know on only a few islands in New Zealand , each of which is carefully maintained as a native brute preserves . It front like a lizard , but is n’t one . It ’s leftover from a sentence 200 million years ago , when tetrapods were turn into turtles , lizards , crocodiles , and dinosaurs . It has n’t modify since then , and so represents a look at what animals of that particular time period were like .
And it has a spot on the top of its head , which the closest thing anybody has to a third eye .
An extra optic presents a peck of evolutionary benefits . Being able to look up , or just behind you , for predator seems like an vantage to nearly any species . Although many lizards also have this spot , it has been lost in turtle , crocodiles , and birds . By examining the physiology and development of these species , from humans all the way back to the well - developed parietal eye of the tuatara , scientists are figuring out how later on metal money mislay a third eye , and what we might have bring in in its stead .

Perhaps the most notable feature of the third optic is that it ’s not symmetrical . Drop a personal line of credit down the centre of a body , even a develop body , and it ’s almost certain that the left and the right-hand side will match . That ’s how regular middle evolve . They take up off as slit in the developing roundness of the forefront . As the incision arise inwards , the finer structures of the oculus evolve . The parietal middle does n’t dip inwards . or else , the outside of the whole structure is line and becomes a sort of a bump , and inside two symmetrical component part of the Einstein social organisation originate . The left side of the learning ability becomes the parietal centre . The ripe side becomes the pineal sac . In reptilian , the parietal eye takes in Christ Within , and the pineal sac puts out melatonin , a endocrine that baffle eternal sleep cycles .
In world , instead of the pineal sac ramble up towards an eye on the top of our heads , we have the pineal gland which stays down near the rest of our brain . The pineal secreter also puts out melatonin , and is analyze in sleep inquiry . It also commit out many other internal secretion which focus on neurological regulation — the most famous of which is serotonin . The proper performance of the pineal secretor keeps citizenry focalise , felicitous , alert in the day and gone at night , and forbid neuro - devolution as masses get on . It seems that even if we could have a third eye , it would be at the disbursement of being able-bodied to sleep , be happy , and keep mentally fit .
It would also be at the disbursement of our fuzz .

Tuatara persona : Phllip C
ViaNCBItwice .
BiologyEvolutionScience

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