A 500 million-year-old larva fossil with a preserved brain was found in China: scientists' jaws dropped. Photo
In China, researchers found a 500 million-year-old larval fossil with a preserved brain. Scientists were simply "jaw dropping" at this amazing discovery.
According to scientists, the larval fossil is so well preserved that it has become a roadmap for the study of the evolution of arthropods in the Cambrian period. Thanks to the remains of a microscopic worm-like creature that lived half a billion years ago, researchers have discovered how the brain of a huge group of animals developed, LiveScience writes.
The X-ray shows that the half-billion-year-old larva is almost perfectly preserved.
Source: Emma J. Long
According to the results of the first studies, the creature found died while in the early developmental or larval stage. It belongs to a new species called youti yuanshi (youti yuanshi means primitive larva).
Scientists say that this creature lived in the Cambrian seas and helped to create arthropods such as insects, spiders, and crabs. The fossil, which is the size of a grain of sand, is extremely well preserved.
"When I used to dream about the one fossil I would most like to discover, I always thought of an arthropod larva because the data on its development is extremely important for understanding their evolution. But larvae are so tiny and fragile that the chances of finding a fossil of one are almost zero – at least I thought so!" said Martin Smith, lead author of the study and professor of paleontology at Durham University in the UK.
An electron micrograph of the larva's right side shows its external anatomy.
Source: Yang Jie/Zhang Xiguang
A team of researchers found the fossil in the Yuanshan Rock Formation in China's Yunnan Province. Scientists scanned the find with X-rays to create virtual 3D images of its internal structures. According to the study, the images revealed a brain and a primitive circulatory system, including traces of nerves affecting the larva's legs and eyes.
Anatomical view of a larva.
Source: nature.com
"I already knew that this simple worm-like fossil was something special, but when I saw the amazing structures preserved under its skin, my jaw dropped. How could these complex features have avoided decay? All so that we could see it in half a billion years," Professor Smith said with joy.
Researchers do not understand how, after the death of this creature, its soft tissues were replaced by phosphate and preserved in the rock. Martin Smith suggested that there must have been a high level of phosphorus in the water, which provided the raw material for the transformation of cells into phosphate minerals.
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