What causes the patterns in your eyes?

Question

I recent question of what color my eyes were had be looking at them in the mirror... and I noticed mine look like (for lack of better discription) like ripped skin stretched tight over a canvas. I thought it was very strange, but after looking up pictures on the internet, I found it's apparently not uncommon. I was wondering what causes the patterns? Why are there different patterns? And what is the significance of a pattern? Does one have a special trait more than another?

My eye is patterned like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukecanvin/129348310/

Answer 1

the iris is a series of muscles and crypts, that's what gives it that pattern. Very common, and normal.

Answer 2

It would have to do with your DNA which is from your parents so it will probably be like your parents.

Answer 3

When the front of the optic cup is forming, a very vascular layer with radial and crisscross vessels cover the epithelium. This atrophies or degenerates a bit later and the tissues covering the vessels sort of just sinks onto the vessels causing the little mountains and valleys we see as the iris. In the center is a ring of pigment which is the actual front of the optic cup. The back portion of the pigment layer forms the neurosensory retina but in the front the black pigment behind the iris that stops the light. The front of the cup forms the Retinal Pigment Epithelium, but in the front, those cells form the dilator muscle of the iris.  Look up the embryology of the eye, it'll all make sense.