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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.'"
That it escaped all the zombies from back then. Dinosaur zombies.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
The brain in question is pretty small compared to the brain case. Since brain case size is the main method of telling how large a brain an animal had this is going to suggest some possible need to reevaluate that technique's accuracy beyond providing an upper bound on brain size.
It was transported there by rail of course. Airplanes didn't exist way back when earth that makes up Kansas was underwater.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
So does it still work after all this time or not?
Please. Also known as ghost sharks makes a little more sense.
When I first read the headline, I thought to myself, "What does Joan Rivers have to do with science?" =)
I am hoping they can apply the results of this research to finding brains in Senators and Congressmen
And can't find one now?
If ever any brain needed to be put in a robot body, it would be that one.
It was stranded there after God flooded the Earth. Really. :)
Cheers,
Greg
those huge eye sockets may interfere with standard laser mounts
No "they saved fishy's brain" jokes? Not even a tag?`
You're getting old, people.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Igor: Yes, I believe that is what the label said. Maybe Aby Normal...
Also, the grey matter surface (cortex) plays a more important role than the total volume occupied by the brain.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Large eyes might correlate with needing to see in the dark THESE days, but we can't really make that assumption about other times without (at least) hard statistics. It could be, for example, that all eyes were large eyes, until small eyes evolved.
We are limited in information about early vertebrate brains, and the evolution of the brain lies at the core of vertebrate history.'
But paleontologists recently discovered the oldest known example nestled within a 300-million-year-old fish fossil from Kansas.
Boy, are some intelligently designed people going to be pissed off at this fish.
Not only is it 300 million years old, but it is also not very intelligently designed with that "can't see up or down"-vision.
And all that right under their noses without them even noticing it.
One would think that the 300 million years old fishy smell would be a giveaway.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
So they have finally found the brain that RIAA is missing.
For a nice date: Call strftime(3C)!
Just a thought but that fish looks like a deep water ocean fish. Large eye for seeing in the dark.
It's fairly common for fish that live near the littoral to have large eyes. Modern ratfish, of which this thing is an ancestor, have big eyes, and I've seen them in shallow water.
Not only is it dark half the time even at the surface, the amount of light available drops off very quickly with depth in most places due to plankton etc. Divers travel the world to find places with good visibility.
Furthermore, in high latitudes the amount of light that penetrates the surface when the sun is low in the sky can be amazingly small: I've been on evening dives in summer at 50 degrees north where it was pitch black at sixty feet even though it was bright and sunny on the surface.
So basically a lot of the ocean is dark most of the time, even within a few feet of the surface, and lakes are generally more turbid, which makes them even darker.
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
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 ;-).
[Enter Nathan Hale]
Life==Jeopardy. All the answers are right in front us - the hard part is coming up with the correct question.
What else can a support of "intelligent" design be but a joke?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Unexpected is a more apt description. I haven't read TFA yet, cause I like to read the funny on /. first, but it isn't unusual for modern scientists to describe some phenomena as bizarre because the universe did not yield the results they expected. What is interesting is the increase in bizarre phenomena which doesn't fit the current dogma.
A true scientist will admit that they don't have all of the answers. A great scientist will realize that they aren't even asking the right question.
It's all there in your HHGttG, or Kindle.