500-million-year-old fossil creatures discovered with three eyes and well-preserved brains
The perfectly preserved fossils of dozens of invertebrates that lived 500 million years ago have been discovered in a well-known paleontological site in Canada . What makes these prehistoric finds particularly precious are the marvelous details of the nervous tissue (brain) and the presence of three eyes. According to experts, the internal structures are so well maintained that it seems that the animals "died yesterday", even though they date from the Cambrian , that is, 500 million years ago.
Credit: Current Biology
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The fossils of these invertebrates, belonging to the order of Radiodons and the class of Dinocarids, were discovered and described by the two Canadian scientists Joseph Moysiuk and Jean Bernard Caron, both from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. The researchers focused their investigations on some 270 specimens of Stanleycaris hirpex fossilized in the Cambrian Burgess Shale, a fossil site that has made international news for the strangeness of the animals found. The radiodonts were among the most iconic and bizarre, although they were distantly related to present-day arthropods, such as insects and spiders.
More than 80 of these fossils have perfectly preserved traces of brains and eyes. "Although fossilized brains from the Cambrian period are not new, this find is remarkable for its amazing quality of preservation and large number of specimens," Professor Moysiuk said in a press release . "We can even make out fine details such as the visual processing centers that serve the large eyes and the traces of nerves entering the appendages. The details are so clear that it's as if we were looking at an animal that died yesterday," the scientist added enthusiastically.