Researchers Discover 500-Million-Year Old Fossil Brain

Researchers have discovered a 500-million-year-old fossil brain that could help paleontologists understand origins of Arthropods. Reportedly, the fossil brains are one of the oldest ever found.

Researchers looked at two types of arthropod ancestors from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale in Canada - a soft-bodied trilobite called Helmetia expansa and Odaraia alata, a bizarre creature resembling a submarine.

Researchers discovered that a hard plate called the anterior sclerite, and eye-like features at the front of their bodies were connected through nerve traces. These nerve traces originated from the front part of the brain.

The study concluded that the oval structures were associated with nerves originating in the anterior region of the brain.

"We can say, 'Ah-ha, where does anterior sclerite come from? It comes from the anterior most part of the brain - the forebrain,'" said study researcher Javier Ortega-Hernández, a research fellow in paleobiology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

"The anterior sclerite has been lost in modern arthropods, as it most likely fused with other parts of the head during the evolutionary history of the group," Dr Ortega-Hernández, who authored the paper added.

"What we're seeing in these fossils is one of the major transitional steps between soft-bodied worm-like creatures and arthropods with hard exoskeletons and jointed limbs - this is a period of crucial transformation."

The study is published in the journal Current Biology.