Recently, foreign scientists discovered the oldest complete brain of a vertebrate by scanning 319 million-year-old fish fossils, CNN reported.
The fossil was found in a British coal mine more than a century ago and belonged to an extinct fish, according to an article published in the journal Nature.
Scientists from the University of Michigan in the US and the University of Birmingham in the UK used computed tomography (CT) to look inside the skull of a fish, initially with the aim of obtaining internal anatomical details to provide insights into evolutionary relationships.
Using CT images, however, the scientists found several features in the fossil that belonged to a vertebrate brain: it was bilaterally symmetrical, contained hollow spaces similar to ventricles, and had extended filaments similar to cranial nerves.
Unlike hard bones and teeth, scientists have rarely found preserved brain tissue in vertebrate fossils, researchers say.
Next, scientists will further study how such subtle features of the brain are preserved for hundreds of millions of years.
(Produced by Liu Yinghan)
Responsible editor: [Lu Yan]