Fig. 1

Newly described fossils shed light on the evolution of flatfish eyes. a A comparison of living flatfishes to other living and extinct species led to this evolutionary tree. “Crown-clade Pleuronectiformes” are the living species of flatfishes. b A reconstruction of Amphistium, the closest relative to living flatfishes, shows the intermediate position of one of its eyes. c A simplified version of the evolutionary tree in (a) illustrates the transition. To the right of each fish are three views of its skull, with the position of its eyes marked in red and blue. Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature, 454 (7201):209–12, copyright 2008