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Ancient Fossil Reveals Oldest Known Circulatory System

By Guest PostApril 13, 2014Nature, Scienceaurora australis, cambrian period, cardiovascular system, China, circulatory system, craig aumack, don perovich, earliest known, fuxianhuia protensa, ice breaker, ice pond, kate crawford, ken golden, life of ice, lili cheng, nicholas strausfeld, pompeii, united kingdom, university of arizona, vascular system, xianguang hou, xiaoya ma, yunnan province

A fossil creature buried in an “invertebrate version of Pompeii” more than half a billion years ago reveals the first-known cardiovascular system in exquisitely preserved detail.

An international team of researchers from the University of Arizona, China and the United Kingdom has discovered the earliest known cardiovascular system, and the first to clearly show a sophisticated system complete with heart and blood vessels, in fossilized remains of an extinct marine creature that lived over half a billion years ago. The finding sheds new light on the evolution of body organization in the animal kingdom and shows that even the earliest creatures had internal organizational systems that strongly resemble those found in their modern descendants. (more…)

Extinct ‘Mega Claw’ Creature Had Spider-Like Brain

By Guest PostOctober 20, 2013Science3d feature, ancestors of chelicerates, ancestors of crustaceans, chengjiang formation, complete nervous system, computed tomography, crustaceans, ct, ct scan, earliest known, elbow joint, extinct, extinct genus alalcomenaeus, fossilization, fossilized remains, fuxianhuia protensa, ganglia, gengo tanaka, greg edgecombe, horseshoe crabs, kunming, large claws, london, long nerves, lower cambrian, marine arthropods, mega claw creature, megacheirans, millipedes, natural history museum, nerve cells, neuroanatomical feature, nicholas strausfeld, relational tree, scorpions, southwest china, spider like brain, spiders, technique, university of arizona, xianguang hou, xray photograph

UA Regents’ Professor Nicholas Strausfeld and an international team of researchers have discovered the earliest known complete nervous system exquisitely preserved in the fossilized remains of a never-before described creature that crawled or swam in the ocean 520 million years ago.

A team of researchers led by University of Arizona Regents’ Professor Nick Strausfeld and London Natural History Museum’s Greg Edgecombe have discovered the earliest known complete nervous system, exquisitely preserved in the fossilized remains of a never-before described creature that crawled or swam in the ocean 520 million years ago.

The find suggests that the ancestors of chelicerates – spiders, scorpions and their kin – branched off from the family tree of other arthropods – including insects, crustaceans and millipedes – more than half a billion years ago. (more…)

Cambrian Fossil Pushes Back Evolution of Complex Brains

By Guest PostOctober 10, 2012Nature, Scienceancient animal, arachnids, arizona, arthropods, brain anatomy, branchiopod brain, branchiopods, brine shrimp, cambrian fossil, cambrian period, China, common ancestor, complex brain, course, crustaceans, dna sequence, evolution, evolutionary biologist, fuxianhuia protensa, gregory edgecombe, hypothesis, insects, malacostracans, microscope, missing link, modern brain, modern malacostracan, molecular data, morphology, mudstone, multicellular animals, Nature, neural anatomy, neurobiologist, neurocladistics, neuropils, nicholas strausfeld, optic lobes, origin, sensory organ, species, taxonomic group, transformative discovery, university, xianguang hou, xiaoya ma, yunnan province, yunnan university. kunming

Complex brains evolved much earlier than previously thought, as evidenced by a 520-million-year-old fossilized arthropod with remarkably well-preserved brain structures.

The remarkably well-preserved fossil of an extinct arthropod shows that anatomically complex brains evolved earlier than previously thought and have changed little over the course of evolution. According to University of Arizona neurobiologist Nicholas Strausfeld, who co-authored the study describing the specimen, the fossil is the earliest known to show a brain.

The discovery will be published in the Oct. 11 issue of the journal Nature. (more…)

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Ancient Fossil Reveals Oldest Known Circulatory System

Extinct ‘Mega Claw’ Creature Had Spider-Like Brain

Cambrian Fossil Pushes Back Evolution of Complex Brains