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Scientists discovered the fossilized brain of a vertebrate in a 319 million year old fossil.
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The rare find offers new insights into the evolution of extinct bony fish related to salmon.
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Researchers used imaging technology to look inside the fossil’s skull.
A 319-million-year-old fossilized fish, which revealed the “oldest example of a well-preserved vertebrate brain,” offers new insights into the evolution of early bony fish, researchers found in a new study published Wednesday in Nature.
The ancient fish, distantly related to the salmon and goldfish, was discovered more than a century ago in a coal mine in England and was only recently re-examined.
A scan of a skull from the fish, called Coccocephalus wildi (C. wildi), “opens a window into the neural anatomy and early evolution of the most important group of fish living today,” said study authors from the University of Michigan and the University of Birmingham in England.
While the tiny fossil fish may seem “superficially unimpressive,” it shows that “much of what we thought about the evolution of the brains of only living species needs to be reworked,” said Rodrigo Figueroa, one of the study’s lead authors. .
Scientists rarely discover fossilized soft tissue — as opposed to bones, shells or teeth — which is why this “exceptionally” well-preserved vertebrate brain offers a whole new perspective on other ray-finned fish that still swim.
The finding suggests a more complex brain evolution pattern, helping researchers better define “how and when today’s bony fish evolved.”
The fossil is one of a kind, so the scientists used “non-destructive” imaging technology to “peek inside the skull of the ray-finned fish,” which likely ate crustaceans, aquatic insects and cephalopods.
The scan image of the C. wildi first appeared as an “unidentified blob,” and the researchers were stunned to discover that it was a preserved brain. “It was so unexpected that it took us a while to be sure it was really brains,” Sam Giles, a vertebrate paleontologist and senior research fellow at the University of Birmingham, told CNN.
Researchers think the extinct ray-finned fish would have been about 6 to 8 inches long, and that its brain and associated nerves are about 1 inch long. When the fish died millions of years ago, the soft tissues were quickly replaced by a dense mineral that allowed the brain to be preserved in a detailed three-dimensional structure, the study said.
The ancient fish has been loaned to scientists at the Manchester Museum in England.
Read the original article on Business Insider