This picture shows a nearly intact fossil of Fuxianhuia protensa. The inset shows the fossilized brain in the head of another specimen. The brain structures are visible as dark outlines. Credit: Specimen photo: Xiaoya Ma; inset: Nicholas Strausfeld
Complex brains evolved much earlier than previously thought, as evidenced by a 520-million year old fossilized arthropod with remarkably well-preserved brain structures. Representing the earliest specimen to show a brain, the fossil provides a “missing link” that sheds light on the evolutionary history of arthropods, the taxonomic group that comprises crustaceans, arachnids and insects.
The remarkably well-preserved fossil of an extinct arthropod shows that anatomically complex brains evolved earlier than previously thought and have changed little over the course of evolution. According to University of Arizona neurobiologist Nicholas Strausfeld, who co-authored the study describing the specimen, the fossil is the earliest known to show a brain. The discovery will be published in the Oct. 11 issue of the journal Nature.
Embedded in mudstones deposited during the Cambrian period 520 million years ago in what today is the Yunnan Province in China, the approximately 3-inch-long fossil, which belongs to the species Fuxianhuia protensa, represents an extinct lineage of arthropods combining an advanced brain anatomy with a primitive body plan.
The fossil provides a “missing link” that sheds light on the evolutionary history of arthropods, the taxonomic group that comprises crustaceans, arachnids and insects. The researchers call their find “a transformative discovery” that could resolve a long-standing debate about how and when complex brains evolved.
“No one expected such an advanced brain would have evolved so early in the history of multicellular animals,” said Strausfeld, a Regents Professor in the UA department of neuroscience. Via Complex brains evolved much earlier than previously thought, 520-million-year-old fossilized arthropod confirms.
