The first creature to crawl out of the water probably had a technicolour view of the land, say Australian researchers.
This colourful retina from a lungfish suggests the first land animals could see in full colour
Seeing in colour is an advantage for animals as they can differentiate between prey, he says.
The researchers have been studying the retina of the Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri), a living fossil that dates back 400 million years.
These fish were hanging around in shallow waters just before the first land vertebrates evolved.
Australia's lungfish is the world's most primitive
The researchers sequenced the gene responsible for opsin, the visual pigment in the photoreceptor cells of the lungfish retina.
They found all five photoreceptor genes that occur in various combinations in higher vertebrates.
clipped from: www.abc.net.au 
