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520-Million-Year-Old Arthropod May Have Had the First Modern Brain
An anonymous reader writes "Scientists say that the recently discovered 520 million year old insect brain, the oldest brain ever discovered in an arthropod, is surprisingly complex for its age, and may be the earliest example on record of a modern brain structure. Hailed as a 'transformative discovery,' researchers said that the 3-inch-long fossilized extinct arthropod found in Yunnan Province, China, shows that insects evolved to have complex brains significantly earlier than previously thought. Researchers said that the fossilized brain, which looks very similar to brains of modern insects, may provide a missing link that offers new insight on the evolutionary history of arthropods, a group of invertebrates that includes insects, spiders and crustaceans."
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Mind you the funniest one I have come across was a page about "sharp calculators classed as weapons. Well I suppose a (literally) sharp calculator could be!
You didnt miss much. Just some conclusions about the evolution of insects:
They explained that up until now, research on insects has been divided into two camps. While some researchers believe that insects evolved from the same ancestor that gave rise to malacostracans, a group of crustaceans that include crabs and shrimp, the majority of scientists believe that they were derived from a group of crustaceans called branchiopods, a species that includes include brine shrimp, which have a simpler brain anatomy than malacostracans.
However, researchers from the latest study say that the new finding shows that insects did in fact evolve from creatures that already possessed complex brains.
Read more at http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/12631/20121010/520-million-year-old-bug-creature-first.htm#hclmrDOPXj8WW6PR.99
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Frankly I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive.
"Finally".
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
The feather (or pen) is mightier than the sword, so calculators (especially sharp ones) should be considered dangerous.
On the other hand I'm have some trouble with the exact level of dangerousness. If pen beats sword (and thereby knife and dagger), what would a pocket calculator beat?
You didnt miss much. Just some conclusions about the evolution of insects:
I could have got that watching the conservative party conference
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
If pen beats sword (and thereby knife and dagger), what would a pocket calculator beat?
Barack Obama at calculating the deficit?
While a sharp calculator may have a certain level of dangerousness, to really cause damage you need a spreadsheet.
Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
Nice one... Still the question of what weapon a calculator would beat remains unanswered. A pointy stick, a knife, assault rifle, sarin gas or an icbm? The whole issue is rather tricky. In close combat a pocket calculator is rather worthless, even if thrown in a slingshot. If it is used to calculate ballistic flight paths for artillery things change...
Reading this from the couch on the TV with large fonts, I read the title as:
520-Million-Year-Old Arthropod May Have Had the First Modem!
and I thought, damn, news for nerds, finally!
520 million years, or a good ways into the Atdabanian Stage. At that point trilobites have been around for at least 6 million years already. Surely they had fairly sophisticated arthropod brains. I dunno, this seems a little late, the primary radiation in Euarthropoda almost certainly came before this guy lived. In any case the systematics of arthropods are a mess.
"Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem." -- Jefferson
My daughter thinks SHE has the first modern brain.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You didnt miss much. Just some conclusions about the evolution of insects:
What is this evolution you talk of, and how can this insect be 520 million years old, if earth is only 6000 years old?
I still don't know whether to laugh or cry, when I hear people try to proclaim creationism as science. Otoh trying to get it into the classroom pisses me of for sure.
Don't be absurd. Evolution is a Lie from Hell. I have that straight from the congressional panel on Science and Technology.
If you add up all the intelligence of all the Republicans on the House science committee it would still be less than one of those bugs.
You mean the earth wasn't created 6,000 years ago?