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Fish fossil unfolds clues to vertebrate brain evolution

A 319-million-year-old fossil provides the oldest known evidence of preserved vertebrate brain tissue. This specimen offers insights into the brain evolution of ray-finned fishes, the most diverse group of living vertebrates.
  1. Hugo Dutel

    1. Hugo Dutel is in the Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK, and in the Department of Engineering, University of Hull, Hull, UK.

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  2. Matteo Fabbri

    1. Matteo Fabbri is in the Negaunee Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois 60602, USA.

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The diversity of modern animal forms that we might encounter in our day-to-day lives is only the latest chapter in hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Fossils are therefore pivotal in reconstructing the sequence and timing of the evolution of living animals’ defining features. However, although mineralized tissues such as bone commonly fossilize, soft tissues, such as the brain and muscles, usually leave no trace. Therefore, our understanding of how living animals became how they are is incomplete. Writing in Nature, Figueroa et al.1 report the stunning discovery of a fossilized brain in an early ray-finned fish, presenting findings that overturn textbook narratives about the brain evolution of vertebrates.

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Nature 614, 422-423 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00243-6

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 02 February 2023: The species name of the fossil studied has been corrected to Coccocephalus wildi.

References

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  11. Briggs, D. E. G. & McMahon, S. Palaeontology 59, 1–11 (2016).

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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