What are eyelashes for?

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There’s the fairly obvious, but rarely used, last moment warning for small objects, like an insect flying into the eye, triggering a tightly closed eye.

Recently, a study of a large number of species, including red kangaroo, camel, African elephant, giraffe, zebra & chimpanzees has found that the length of eyelashes is one third the width of the eye. At this length, eyelashes create an area of still air on the surface of the eyeball.

But people have different length eyelashes — this may reflect differences in the width of the eye, or the shape of the face.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/02/25/4186151.htm / long lashes eyes stand research researchers ideal lash length protects your eyes dust damage Journal of the Royal Society Interface eyelashes length one-third width eye eye ball protective zone still air eyeball surface Dr David Hu function eyelashes eyes hypotheses eyelashes associate professor mechanical engineering biology Georgia Institute of Technology shade eye Sun dust catchers study colleagues studied 22 mammals Museum of Natural History New York City animal pelts eyelash length animals strict relationship lash is about one-third width of the eye wind tunnel researchers fake eye tested it walking-speed wind tunnel evaporation eye's surface optimum eyelash length minimises air flow on the eye surface cuts down evaporation reduces the amount of dust fine particles contact eye air moving over the eye's surface protect the eye too long funnel air down towards the eye create a zone of still air at the eye's surface variation one-third rule longer eyelashes shape of the face studies influences flow gets to the eye wind tunnels pressure on the eye animals live desert environments camels giraffes especially thick eyelashes shelter eyes from dust children with allergies longer lashes eyelashes provide protective function /