The 300 Million Year Old Brain

Pickens writes "Paleontologists recently discovered the world's oldest brain nestled within a 300-million-year-old fish fossil of one of the extinct relatives of modern ratfishes, also known as 'host sharks' or chimaeras. These chimaera relatives, called iniopterygians, represented bizarre beasts that sported massive skulls with huge eye sockets, shark-like teeth in rows, tails with clubs, huge pectoral fins that were placed almost on their backs, and bone-like spikes or hooks tipping the fins. The brain shows details such as a large vision lobe and optic nerve stretching to the proper place on the braincase, which fits with the fish's large eye sockets. The ear canals of the extinct fish only exist on a horizontal plane so the fish could only detect side-to-side movements, and not up or down. 'There is nothing like this known today; it is really bizarre,' said John Maisey, paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. 'But now that we know that brains might be preserved in such ancient fossils, we can start looking for others. We are limited in information about early vertebrate brains, and the evolution of the brain lies at the core of vertebrate history.'"

Comments

Re:Is going to cause some serious reexamination.

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe the best way that we can extrapolate is by examining known intracranial volume of transitional fossils.

It's exciting times for evolutionary physiology in American research. Not only have we found the missing link between Pan troglodytes and Homo sapiens , we elected him for president!

Is it really bizarre?

[macxcool]

It seems to me that the act of labeling this fish bizarre is itself bizarre. Just because proportions are not what we are used to seeing does not make them necessarily weird. Organisms are designed for the environment they live in and their physical characteristics reflect that. Perhaps interesting or unusual would be better adjectives ;-).