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A 525 million - year - quondam fossilized dirt ball unearth inChinahas what is likely the oldest example of a brain ever discovered . The surprising bod of the brainpower offers clues about the development of arthropods — a group that include insects , arachnids and crustacean — and could help solve a mystery story that ’s been puzzling researcher for more than a century .
The ancient critter , known asCardiodictyon catenulum , was discovered in 1984 along with legion other fogy , jointly be intimate as Chengjiang fauna , at a site in China ’s Yunnan province . The worm - like creature belongs to the phylum Lobopodia — a mathematical group of extinct , seafloor - live arthropod ancestors with panoplied shell and stubby legs that were abundant during theCambrian period(541 million to 485.4 million years ago ) .
An abstract artist’s impression of what the fossilized worm, Cardiodictyon catenulum, may have looked like.
In a new study , published Nov. 24 in the journalArthropod Evolution , another team of scientist reanalyzed the fossilized specimen and found that it had been conceal an stupefying secret — a preserve flighty scheme , including a brain .
" To our knowledge , this is the older fossilise mind we know of , so far , " field lead authorNicholas Strausfeld , a neurobiologist at The University of Arizona in Tucson , say in astatement .
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A close-up of the fossil specimen trapped in rock. The animal’s non-segmented head is at the far-right of the image.
It take aim almost 40 years for scientist to discoverC. catenulum ’s brain because research worker previously believed that any mild tissue paper in the animal had been lose over time .
" Until very of late , the coarse discernment was [ that ] encephalon do n’t fossilize , " sketch co - authorFrank Hirth , an evolutionary neuroscientist at King ’s College London in the U.K. , sound out in the instruction . Due to the humble sizing and age of the dodo , retiring investigator " would not even make bold to search at it in hopes of finding a encephalon , " he added .
But recent investigation of similar fossils dating to around the same metre have changed this preconception . To date , rude fossilized mastermind have also been found in a500 million - twelvemonth - old penis worm congener ; anexceptionally well - preserved glitch - like critterfrom around 500 million years ago ; a520 million - year - old " sea monster " ; anddozens of three - eyed sea creaturesdating to around 506 million old age ago .
The fossilized body (top left) and fossilized brain (top right) of the worm-like critter. The magenta color indicates the presence of preserved neural tissue. The reconstruction below shows how the animal’s nervous system would have been structured.
Upending arthropod evolution
As surprising as it was to find out the ancient brain , the researcher were more taken aback by the shape and structure of the critter ’s braincase . The head and wit are both non - segmented , mean that they are not split up into multiple parts . But , the rest of the fogy ’s torso is part into segments .
" This anatomy was completely unexpected , " Strausfeld said . For more than a century , researchers thought that the mastermind and heads of long - extinct arthropod were segment just like those of modern arthropod ; most fogey of other ancient arthropod ancestor also display segment school principal and head , he added .
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Even more surprising , C. catenulumhad pocket-size clumps of cheek , known as ganglia , run through its segmented body . As a result of this find , the researchers believe that the segmented brains and heads realize in modern arthropod may have evolved separately from the sleep of the anxious scheme , which likely became segmented first .
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However , the study authors noted thatC. catenulum ’s fossilized genius still shares some key characteristics with modern arthropod brains , which suggests that the " introductory brain program " has not change too drastically in the last half - a - billion years , Strausfeld said .
The investigator next desire to equate the fossilised mastermind with the brains of other animal mathematical group to try and uncover more about how unlike encephalon have radiate over sentence .
