Learn the world's oldest brain fossil

Fossil brain 500 million years old can provide more clues about the evolution of organisms on Earth.

The world's oldest brain fossil

The ancient fossil brain belonging to the Odaria alata crustacean, dating to 500 million years old, is considered one of the oldest brains in the world. It looks like a submarine with a structure that looks like big eyes in the brain stem. The " eye " and the hardened flattened part are connected through nerves that originate from the front part of the brain.

Fossil of Odaria alata.(Photo: Jean Bernard Caron / Royal Ontario Museum)

Javier Ortega-Hernandez, the study's author in Current Biology, thinks that rudimentary brains appear before the head, and the head is likely to appear later to protect the brain.

" What we see in fossils is one of the important transitions between worm-like mollusks and arthropods with hard outer bones," ABC Science said.

The evolutionary phase during the Cambrian explosion, about 500 million years ago, created many species with outer covers (skeleton), head and joints in the limbs. Before this period, animals on Earth mostly consisted of soft-bodied species such as algae and jellyfish.