How Did Light and Oxygen Influence the Evolution of Eyes and Lungs?

[Mazeikas]

Did the evolution of the eye include interaction/reaction with a specific frequency of light? Did the evolution of the lung include interaction/reaction with the air density, humidity, and temperature of its environment?

 

[sophiecentaur]

Did the evolution of the eye include interaction/reaction with a specific frequency of light? Did the evolution of the lung include interaction/reaction with the air density, humidity, and temperature of its environment?

Well - yes. But those are just a small part of the way life adapts to the environment. Homeostasis got cleverer and cleverer as the species got more and more advanced.

 

[Mazeikas]

I see. "Homeostasis". Forgive my ignorance, you gave me something to look up! :)

 

[sophiecentaur]

That's just a word for 'control system' in any other circumstance. (Biologists just had to get a look in with their long words).
If you think about the way different life forms have different ways of achieving gaseous exchange then evolution had to come into it. I was looking at a damselfly larva in my garden pond the other day. It has little gills sticking back out of its tail. "Caudal Gills", apparently. The go the Biologists again. I could think of a much more descriptive word. They are obviously there and just that size for a reason.