# What animal eye would be the best transplant replacement for a human one? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 23, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955 "2012-12-23T21:05:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/1 "2012-12-23T21:05:09Z")
Like it says in the title: what animal eye would be the best for replacing a human one in a Xenotransplant…assuming, of course, that you’d solved the tissue rejection and optic-nerve connection problems solved? (I know, I know, that’s a big ol’ “assuming,” there.) I’d think that the three main concerns would be eyeball size (closest to the recipient’s eye size would be best); visual range (something closer to the average human would be best—though tricky, most animals are some form of colorblind); and availability of donor organs/animals (pigs would be easier to procure than endangered gorillas, for example). I imagine appearance and aesthetics would come in a very distant fourth. So rather than sneaking into the zoo at night with an awl and a set of calipers, I thought I’d ask here (better knowledge base, and less mess.) What animal eye _would_ be the best practical replacement for a human eye? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/2 "2012-12-23T21:08:49Z")
Pigs are generally the best fit in terms of similar size and availability. Not sure there would be color vision, though. Kinda gives new meaning to the phrase “in a pig’s eye”. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/3 "2012-12-23T21:16:28Z")
Purely from the point of size, the dolphin has a similar sized eye [according to this chart](http://www.noadi.net/EyeSizes.html). Not sure how well that would work assuming a dolphin’s eye is adapted for seeing underwater. Bear is the next size smaller. Cougar the next size larger. Pig is not listed. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/4 "2012-12-23T21:41:39Z")
I’d go for fly or giant squid, 'cause that’d be cool. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/5 "2012-12-23T21:49:59Z")
It would be cool if you could find [goat eyes](https://www.google.com/search?q=goat+eyes&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=XnzXUKLOOsXprAGdw4C4Cw&sqi=2&ved=0CEEQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=659) the same size as our transplant recipients’ eyes. Because Goat pupils are really weird. ---
**Author:** ![al27052](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@al27052](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/al27052)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/6 "2012-12-23T21:58:03Z")
Chimpanzee? Also, boar eyes are listed at 28 mm, so domesticated pig eyes are probably very similar. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/7 "2012-12-23T22:55:14Z")
Bonobo chimpanzees are our closest living relative so I would go with those. The basic problem is availability. They are vastly fewer in numbers compared to people so there is no reason to pursue that line of research. It would be much more effective to focus on human-to-human eye transplants using donors that come from people in brain-dead comas or very recently deceased accident victims. Pigs make relatively (still not very) good donors for some organs but I don’t think they would be very suitable to emulate a human eye even if you could overcome all the other obstacles like rejection and optic nerve connections. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/8 "2012-12-24T16:33:54Z")
Basically only great apes and old world monkeys have three colored vision. With new world monkeys the situation is more complicated, but some percentage (I think 2/3) of the females and none of the males do. The reason is complicated and interesting. A somewhat overly technical explanation is: [Evolution of color vision in primates - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_color_vision_in_primates#New_World_monkeys) Apes are nearly extinct, but there are some largish monkeys, baboons come to mind. But they would look odd since the “whites” are actually brown. Still that would be my choice. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/9 "2012-12-24T16:59:13Z")
I think the ability to make sense of small detailed objects in relation to one another would be the big difficulty, and that human eyes are very unusually good at this in the animal kingdom. I kind of have the idea from reading several different things that other animal’s eyes would not be able to interpret a knot, or learn to read, or follow runs on a circuit board, or associate an entry in a table with the proper column and row headings. This isn’t just a brain function, but rather part of how the retina encodes information. Eyes aren’t cameras - they participate in analysis. ---
**Author:** ![Lauren-C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Lauren-C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lauren-C)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/10 "2012-12-24T17:29:59Z")
Eeeugh!!! No way. Even if it were possible, which it isn’t, no way. ---
**Author:** ![SanDiegoTim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/11 "2012-12-24T18:19:57Z")
I’ve had a couple of retina reattachment surgeries. During a follow up appointment I asked the surgeon what he practiced on for the various procedures he performed. He said rabbit eyes. I assume there must be structure similarities with a human eye. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/12 "2012-12-24T18:23:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Shagnasty** : > > Bonobo chimpanzees are our closest living relative so I would go with those. The split between bonobos and the other chimps is more recent than the split of that line from the one that produced humans, so we’re equally closely related to either of them. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/13 "2012-12-24T18:45:04Z")
I want an eagle’s eye so I can read over people’s shoulders from across the room. And spot mice from a mile away ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/14 "2012-12-24T20:31:47Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > I’d go for fly or giant squid, 'cause that’d be cool. A quick and good article on giant squid eyes, with a _great_ photo of an eye in each hand, is [here](http://gilly.stanford.edu/neuroscience.html). ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/15 "2012-12-24T21:21:37Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Kinda gives new meaning to the phrase “in a pig’s eye”. Yep. “Around a pig’s eye.” ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/16 "2012-12-24T21:46:30Z")
Pigs: like most mammals they see color. Also like most mammals, their vision is like a colorblind human’s. Also you’d be nearsighted. Dolphins, other whales, and pinnipeds: great choice, if you don’t mind seeing in black and white. > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Basically only great apes and old world monkeys have three colored vision. With new world monkeys the situation is more complicated, but some percentage (I think 2/3) of the females and none of the males do. Also, all howler monkeys (New World). Apes are probably the best bet. Bird eyes (esp. raptors) would be ideal, but logistics may present a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animal-eye-would-be-the-best-transplant-replacement-for-a-human-one/644955/17 "2012-12-24T23:41:09Z")
**Mac** : Frank, you know a guy who does cat eyes? **Frank** : I’m already on it.