Unlike the Pokemon-playing fish, this 319-million-year-old fossilized fish skull was discovered in a coal mine in England more than century ago. It’s one of the most well-preserved vertebrate brains found to date, and a CT scan revealed that the brain as well as its cranial nerves are roughly an inch long, belonging to an extinct bluegill-size fish.
The skull is thought to be from an early ray-finned fish that swam in an estuary and likely feasted on small crustaceans, aquatic insects as well as cephalopods. These ray-finned fishes have backbones and fins typically supported by bony rods called rays. This finding opens the door neural anatomy and early evolution of the major group of fishes alive today, including the ray-finned fishes.
- Dinosaur toy set – Inspire a passion for dinosaur-related adventures in kids ages 9 and up with this Dinosaur Fossils: T. rex Skull set. The set...
- Dinosaur ‘fossil’ figure for boys and girls – Features a dino toy T. rex skull with dinosaur bones for kids, a ‘fossilized’ footprint and a...
- Posable skull – With jaws that can open and close, the skull can be posed in different ways on the stand or in front of it with the ‘fossilized’...
Not only does this superficially unimpressive and small fossil show us the oldest example of a fossilized vertebrate brain, but it also shows that much of what we thought about brain evolution from living species alone will need reworking. With the widespread availability of modern imaging techniques, I would not be surprised if we find that fossil brains and other soft parts are much more common than we previously thought,” said Rodrigo Figueroa, U-M doctoral student.
