World’s Oldest Preserved Brain Discovered In 3-Eyed Giant Prawn That Lived Half A Billion Years Ago

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Another amazing discovery in the scientific world is considered the “world’s oldest brain,” which is from the remains of a strange creature. This three-eyed prawn actually swam in the world’s oceans half a billion years ago.

Interestingly, is complete nervous system is still visible, which bring about unprecedented understanding into the ancestry of spiders, insects, and crustaceans.


This creature, known as Stanleycaris hirpex, has been described as “the stuff of nightmares,” mostly due to its two eyes “on stalks,” with one being bigger that sits in the middle, as well as spiked claws.

This creature also lived in the Cambrian Explosion period as explained by paleontologists, which was said to have quite rapid evolution in shallow seas. This was also when most of the major animal groups emerged in the fossil record as well.

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This particular creature was a member of the radiodonts family, which was a type of early arthropod. They were basically creepy crawlies with jointed limbs that were measured at 3-feet in length, and were the major predators of their time, making them basically the great white shark of their time. But while this creature’s strange appearance was quite enthralling, it was really the contents of its head that scientists were most excited about.

That’s because this “new” specimen managed to give scientists a look into what the ancestral nervous system looked like. That’s also because finding ay fossilized soft tissue is incredibly rare, which made this discovery extra special and unique.

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From the 84 of the 268 creatures found at Burgees Shale, which happens to be a prehistoric graveyard in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, the brain and nerves were incredibly still preserved, despite the passing of 506 million years on earth. And the analysis of these creatures and their makeup was even published in the journal, Current Biology.

Normally, most of the fossils that are unearthed tend to be hard body parts, like teeth or exoskeletons that have turned into mineral casts. Since brains and nerves are made from fatty-like substances, they don’t normally survive throughout the years.

Lead author of the study, Joseph Moysiuk, who happens to be a PhD candidate from the University of Toronto, shared, “We can even make out visual processing centers serving the large eyes and traces of nerves entering the appendages. The fine details are so clear it is as if we were looking at an animal that died yesterday.”

When it comes to the central nervous systems, this is what coordinates all the neural and motor functions in a creature. When it comes to vertebrates, the nervous system is made up of the brain and the spinal cord.


As for arthropods, their brains are more condensed with a chain-like series of interconnected masses of nervous tissue that happens to resemble a strong of beads. Meanwhile, the Stanleycaris‘ brain was made up of two segments, namely the protocerebrum and the deutocerebrum.

These are what connected the eyes and frontal claws, while also controlling vision and antenna signals in the arthropods you see today.

Moysiuk also said, “We conclude a two segmented head and brain has deep roots in the arthropod lineage. Its evolution likely preceded the three segmented brain that characterizes all living members of this diverse animal phylum.”

When it comes to arthropod organs, there are a number of repeated copies of these found in their segmented bodies. So by figuring out how they line up is also the key to better understanding their diversification.

“These fossils are like a Rosetta Stone, helping to link traits in radiodonts and other early fossil arthropods with their counterparts in surviving groups,” explained Moysiuk.


Stuff of Nightmares

Aside from the pair of stalked eyes, the Stanleycaris also had a large central peeper at the front of its head, which is a feature that has never been seen before in a radiodont.

According to co-author of the study, Professor Jean-Bernard Caron, “The presence of a huge third eye in Stanleycaris was unexpected. It emphasizes these animals were even more bizarre-looking than we thought. It also shows us the earliest arthropods had already evolved a variety of complex visual systems like many of their modern kin.”

“Since most radiodonts are only known from scattered bits and pieces, this discovery is a crucial jump forward in understanding what they looked like and how they lived,” Caron added.

During the Cambrian period, radiodonts were considered to be among the biggest animals. At that time, the Anomalocaris, which has been named ‘weird wonder,’ was at least 3 feet 3 inches in size, making it a sea monster basically. The term radiodont actually means ‘radiating teeth.’ These strange and unique animals were named after their toothy, circular jaws, while also adapting to their darker deep water environment.

The Stanleycaris, on the other hand, was considered to be much smaller. However, it would have also been quite the impressive killer since it was at least three times of the size of most of its rivals.

Moysiuk went on to share, “With large compound eyes, a formidable looking circular mouth lined with teeth, frontal claws with an impressive array of spines, and a flexible, segmented body with a series of swimming flaps along its sides, Stanleycaris would have been the stuff of nightmares for any small bottom dweller unfortunate enough to cross its path.”

Most of these samples were collected back in the 1980s and 1990s, and they now sit in a one of the most extensive fossils collection from the Burgess Shale, which is a World Heritage site, located at the Royal Ontario Museum.

 

 

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