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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."
Access has been blocked because of: Tru-View has categorised this page as Drugs
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.
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.
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.