In a paper published in Geology, Javier Ortega-Hernandez and colleagues from the University of New England, The Natural History Museum, and Pomona College report a unique case of an exceptionally preserved nervous system in a 310 million-year-old fossil horseshoe crab from the world-famous Carboniferous Mazon Creek in Illinois, US. This is the first time that a complete fossilized brain has been discovered replicated in clay minerals. The fossil also shows that the nervous system of horseshoe crabs is surprisingly conservative in its organization.
The authors provide a detailed accounting of the study in The Conversation. Open Access publication of the paper is generously supported by the Museum of Comparative Zoology's Wetmore Colles Fund.
Image: Specimen of the Carboniferous horseshoe crab Euproops danaewith fossilized nervous system. Image provided by Russell Bicknell, University of New England