133 million-year-old dinosaur brain fossil found in England
Friday, October 28, 2016 - 17:31
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Soft tissues such as hearts and muscles are very rarely preserved in the fossil record. For that reason, nearly all study of dinosaur soft tissue has to be reconstructed from fossil bones. However, researchers in the United Kingdom recently identified a genuine fossilized brain from a roughly 133 million-year-old dinosaur in Sussex, England. The brain likely belonged to a close relative of the Iguanodon, a spike-handed herbivorous dinosaur. According to the researchers, this is the first example of a natural endocast (in-filling) of the braincase that preserves fossilized brain tissue from any dinosaur.