Evolution of photosensory pineal organs in new light: the fate of neurodocrine photoreceptors
Pineal evolution is envisaged as a gradual transformation of pinealocytes (a gradual regression of pinealocyte sensory capacity within a particular cell line), the so-called sensory cell line of the pineal organ. In most non-mammals the pineal organ is a directly photosensory organ, while the pineal organ of mammals (epiphysis cerebri) is a non-sensory neuroendocrine organ under photoperiod contro