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First-Ever Dinosaur Brain Tissue Found Preserved In a Pebble (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit quotes a report from Science Magazine: A decade ago, a fossil hunter was combing the beach in southeastern England when he found a strange, brown pebble. The surface of it caught his eye: It was smooth and strangely undulating, and also slightly crinkly in some places. That oddly textured pebble, scientists report today, is actually an endocast -- an impression preserved in the rock -- that represents the first known evidence of fossilized brain tissue of a dinosaur (likely a close relative of Iguanodon, a large, herbivorous type of dinosaur that lived about 133 million years ago). Human brains and bird brains are packed tightly into the brain case, so that their convolutions leave an impression of the inside of the case. But dinosaur (and reptile) brains are more loosely fitted; they are surrounded within the brain case by membranes called meninges, tough sheaths that protect and support the brain. So an endocast of a dinosaur brain might be expected to show those structures -- and it did. But beneath them, remineralized in calcium phosphate, the researchers also spied a pattern of tiny capillaries and other cortical tissues -- the sort of fabric you'd expect for the cortex of a brain. That those textures were pressed up against the brain case doesn't necessarily mean that dinosaurs were bigger-brained and smarter than we thought, however: Instead, the dinosaur had likely simply toppled over and been preserved upside down, its brain tissue preserved by surrounding acidic, low-oxygen waters that pickled and hardened the membranes and tissues, providing a template for mineralization. The structure of the brain, studied with scanning electron microscopes, reveal similarities to both birds and crocodiles. The researchers reported their findings in a Special Publication of the Geological Society of London.

21 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Re:size by ozduo · · Score: 1

    Hey It's not polite to mock the afflicted

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    I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
  2. doc en pic's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
  3. Quote of Day by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

    "I have five dollars for each of you." -- Bernhard Goetz

    Best comeback line ever.

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    If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
  4. Re:size by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    No "Brain Tissue" was found preserved. It's a fossil dammit, a mineralized record of the shape of a brain.
    This is Second Grade Stuff, and frankly I was expecting a lot better of BeauHD.
    I'm not mocking BeauHD, I'm calling him out. This was a really inept Title.
    Resign.

  5. Re:size by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

    Upon reading the title, I was wondering how dinosaur brains got inside a pebble.

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    If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
  6. That's cool, Pebble by kav2k · · Score: 2

    So those smartwatches are useful for something.

  7. Re:size by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    I clicked on his name and saw the photo. He's still wet behind the ears...clearly qualified to be a /. editor.

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    Just another day in Paradise
  8. Re:Chicken or the Egg? by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 1

    Neither. It's the remnant piece of a brain of a dino that looked at Medusa.

  9. Re: size by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    He got stoned. (sunglasses)

  10. Small wonder by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    Small wonder that they died out with a pebble-sized brain.

  11. Meninges! by EvilSS · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Human brains and bird brains are packed tightly into the brain case, so that their convolutions leave an impression of the inside of the case. But dinosaur (and reptile) brains are more loosely fitted; they are surrounded within the brain case by membranes called meninges, tough sheaths that protect and support the brain.

    Good thing human brains don't have a meninges, otherwise we could get meningitis! Oh, wait.....

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    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    1. Re:Meninges! by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Must be a typo. Dinosaurs had ménage-et-trois.

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      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  12. Re:Donald is it You? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    Must be a common thought, first thing that came to my mind was "would anyone notice the pebble if it contained Trump's brain or would it be too small".

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    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  13. Re:Somehow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Ignorant much? i suggest you read St Augustine's exegesis on book of Genesis ( written in 3rd century AD) to realize why you are called ignorant.
    But i suppose born idiots like you prefer to stay ignorant in order to display their ignorance through silly attacks.

  14. Re:Life Finds A Way by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    Rocks having sex? You're obviously on drugs.

    All we need is "Roll" for the "Sex, drugs, rock and Roll" to be complete.

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    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  15. Re: size by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    The question is if there were any indentations in the outside of the skull from a mullet...

  16. What's not mentioned in the story... by arpad1 · · Score: 1

    is the bite taken out of the brain thus proving the long-dismissed hypothesis of dinosaur zombies.

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    Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
  17. Re: size by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    Can't be. Kids in the 80s didn't dress like that. And they certainly weren't as dumb as this.

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    Just another day in Paradise
  18. Re: How about a fucking picture? by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    Those are at pornhub.

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    Just another day in Paradise
  19. Re:Somehow by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Wow, I didn't know the history of people noticing the bible is wrong and trying to excuse it so their favorite fairy tale stays relevant is that old! I always thought it's a more recent development when we actually could prove that it's bunk.

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    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  20. Re: How about a fucking picture? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    #mindfuck?

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    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.