In a fossilized fish skull that had been found almost 100 years earlier in a coal mine in Lancashire, England, scientists led by the University of Michigan discovered something unexpected.
The project, which was used for Rodrigo Figueroa's doctoral dissertation at the University of Michigan, was directed by paleontologist Matt Friedman. During a computed tomography scan, Friedman discovered that the fossilized skull contained a distinctly shaped mass.
"I thought to myself, 'Is this really a brain that I'm looking at?'" "It had all these features." Friedman stated in a press release from the University of Michigan. As a result, when I zoomed in on that part of the skull for a second, higher-resolution scan, it was abundantly clear that that was the only possible location. We only made the decision to proceed because this was such a clear illustration.
It was quite a surprise for the scientists to discover a brain inside the skull because they had no idea what to expect.
Sam Giles, a co-author of the study and senior research fellow and vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Birmingham in England, told CNN, "This is such an exciting and unanticipated find."
It took us a while to determine that it was a brain because it was so unexpected. She continued, "The anatomy of the brain in this fossil has big implications for our understanding of brain evolution in fishes, in addition to being just a preservational curiosity."
According to the researchers, intact brains are extremely uncommon, but not impossible. This one, on the other hand, is one of a kind because, in addition to the fact that it could be the oldest one ever found it is thought to be 319 million years old it also has a lot of detail that isn't found in other flattened fossilized brains that were found around the same time.
Friedman stated in the University of Michigan press release, "Here we’ve found remarkable preservation in a fossil examined multiple times by multiple people over the past century." However, it reveals yet another layer of information to us because we now have these new tools for looking inside fossils."
According to CNN, Figueroa, who was the lead author of the study, stated that the soapstone in which the fossil was buried produced an environment with very little oxygen. The skull also created a "chemical micro-environment" that allowed the brain to be almost perfectly preserved within the skull because it was quickly submerged by fine-grained sediment.
According to a press release from the university, the researchers are of the opinion that it has the potential to provide useful information regarding this ancient relative of one of the largest groups of fish that are still in existence and is responsible for approximately 30,000 species.
Friedman concluded in the release, "That's why holding onto the physical specimens is so important." Because who knows what people might do with the fossils in our collections right now 100 years from now.
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