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Perfectly preserved 310-million-year-old fossilized brain found - Livescience.com
Jul 29, 2021 1 min, 2 secs

Researchers have uncovered a never-before-seen fossilized brain from a 310 million-year-old horseshoe crab, revealing some surprises about the evolution of these wannabe crustaceans, according to a new study.

Although horseshoe crab fossils are relatively common, nothing was previously known about their ancient brains, the researchers said. .

"This is the first and only evidence for a brain in a fossil horseshoe crab," lead author Russell Bicknell, a paleontologist at the University of New England in Maine, told Live Science.

The chances of finding a fossilized brain are "one in a million," he added.

Although such concretions preserved the horseshoe crab's body, the brain tissue still decomposed and eventually disappeared.

This color contrast meant the brain fossil "stood out more than it would have normally" from the rest of the fossil, Bicknell said.

The hunt is now on for more ancient brains that might have been fossilized in the unique geological conditions that preserved this horseshoe crab.

But to the researchers' surprise, they found that the ancient brain, which dates to the Carboniferous period (359 million to 299 million years ago), was remarkably similar to that of a modern horseshoe crab.

"Despite 300 million years of evolution, the fossil horseshoe crab brain is pretty much the same as modern forms," Bicknell said

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