Clues contained in ancient brain point to the origin of heads in early animals
Friday, May 8, 2015 - 02:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
This is Odaraia alata, an arthropod resembling a submarine from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. A new study from the University of Cambridge has identified one of the oldest fossil brains ever discovered - more than 500 million years old - and used it to help determine how heads first evolved in early animals. The results, published today (7 May) in the journal Current Biology, identify a key point in the evolutionary transition from soft to hard bodies in early ancestors of arthropods, the group that contains modern insects, crustaceans and spiders.