Separated by roughly 400 million years of evolution, dragonflies and mammals have almost nothing in common. Yet scientists in Japan have discovered that both groups independently arrived at the exact same molecular solution for seeing red light. The same protein position. The same chemical change. The same result.
The finding comes from a team at Osaka Metropolitan University and is a striking example of parallel evolution – where two unrelated lineages stumble onto the same solution to the same problem, completely independently.
One protein, one switch
Vision in both insects and mammals depends on proteins called opsins. These light-sensitive molecules sit inside cells in the eye and trigger a nerve signal when they absorb light. Different opsins are tuned to different wavelengths – some respond to blue, some to green, some to red.
The team focused on the red-sensing opsins in a species of dragonfly from the Gomphidae family. What they found at a molecular level stopped them.
“Surprisingly, the mechanism by which dragonfly red opsin detects red light is identical to that of red opsin in mammals, including humans,” said Ryu Sato, the study’s first author and a graduate student at Osaka Metropolitan University, in a statement released by the university. “This is an unexpected result, suggesting that the same evolutionary process occurred independently in distantly related lineages.”
The key turned out to be a single position in the protein chain, position 292. In both mammals and dragonflies, a small change at this exact spot shifts the protein’s sensitivity from green light toward red. The two lineages found the same switch – independently – across hundreds of millions of years of separate evolution.
“This is one of the most red-sensitive visual pigments ever found,” said Professor Terakita. “Dragonflies can likely see deeper into red light than most insects.”
Why dragonflies need extreme colour vision
Dragonflies are aerial hunters that track fast-moving prey in flight and need to identify mates in a fraction of a second. The team found that male and female dragonflies reflect light differently in the deep red and near-infrared range – differences that would be invisible to most other insects, but not to dragonflies.
This suggests that dragonflies evolved their exceptional red vision partly for mate recognition. A male dragonfly hurtling through a reed bed can use subtle differences in near-infrared reflectance to distinguish a female from a male or a plant, faster than any other visual cue would allow.
A tool hiding in an insect’s eye
The discovery does not stop at evolutionary biology. The team went further: they identified the exact amino acid at position 292 that gives dragonfly opsins their deep red sensitivity, then engineered a modified version with sensitivity pushed even further into the near-infrared range.
They showed that cells carrying this modified protein could be activated by near-infrared light at 738 nm – well beyond what human eyes can detect.
This matters because near-infrared light penetrates human tissue more deeply than visible light. Medical tools that use light to trigger responses inside the body – a field called optogenetics – currently struggle to reach deep tissues because shorter wavelengths are blocked or scattered before they arrive. A near-infrared sensitive opsin, engineered from a dragonfly protein, could work much deeper.
“These findings demonstrate this opsin as a promising optogenetic tool capable of detecting light even deep within living organisms,” Professor Koyanagi said in a statement released by the university.
Parallel evolution as a signal
The broader significance of the finding is what it says about the nature of evolution itself. When two completely unrelated groups independently arrive at the same solution, it suggests that solution is very nearly optimal. There may be only so many ways to build a red-sensitive opsin, and both mammals and dragonflies found the best one available.
Sources
Primary paper Ryu Sato, Akihisa Terakita, Mitsumasa Koyanagi. “Dragonfly red opsins share a common tuning mechanism with mammalian red opsins and further enhancement of near-infrared sensitivity.” Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 83, 66. Published 20 January 2026. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-025-06017-9
Institutional press release Osaka Metropolitan University. “Seeing red: Dragonflies and humans share the same red-light detection mechanism.” 9 April 2026. https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/
Neuroscience News. “The Shared Secret of Mammal and Dragonfly Color Vision.” 9 April 2026. https://neurosciencenews.com/dragonfly-red-vision-parallel-evolution-30489/
Jane holds a BSc in Biology from the University of Regina and a Master of Science in Bioscience, Technology and Public Policy from the Univesity of Winnipeg. Her reporting interests include Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and the Cosmos.