A team of scientists from the University of Arizona has reported the discovery of rare fossils that preserve the neural networks of living things that date back more than half a billion years.

A team of scientists from the University of Arizona has reported the discovery of rare fossils that preserve the neural networks of living things that date back more than half a billion years. The findings explain the evolution of arthropods such as insects and crustaceans. The fossils provide the first evidence of the existence of a distinct brain region in the protocerebrum, the first segment of the arthropod brain.

The fossils also explain the evolutionary origin of two separate visual systems in the evolution of arthropods. Details of the research were published in the journal Current Biology on August 19, 2021. The fossils were found in the deposits of the Kaili formation, a geological formation in Guizhou province in southwest China. The fossils are the remains of Leanchoilia fossils from the Cambrian period, about 580 million years ago.

This Kaili fossil is found in sedimentary rocks that have a high concentration of iron. This may help preserve soft tissue which is then replaced with carbon deposits. Seeing that, the first author of the paper, Tian Lan gave his comment.

"The Kaili fossil opens a window for us to glimpse projections of the evolution of animals that lived more than half a billion years ago," he said.

He said for the first time, we now know that arthropod fossils from the Kaili formation have the potential to preserve neural networks that show us the primitive brains of early life arthropods.

Meanwhile, co-author Pedro Martinez of the Universitat de Barcelona and the Catala Institute in Barcelona says that the nervous system, like other soft tissues, is difficult to fossilize.

"This makes the study of the early evolution of the nervous system a challenging task," he said.

This was also approved by Nicholas Strausfeld, a research associate who is also Regents Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Arizona who claimed to be very enthusiastic about the discovery.

"The extraordinary fossil we are describing is unlike anything that has ever been seen before," he said.