A 'one in a million' brain from 310 million years ago was just found

A new study published in the journal Geology has detailed the discovery of a fossilized brain that dates back 310 million years.

According to the study, researchers uncovered what is being described as a "one in a million" fossilized brain of a horseshoe crab, specifically from the crab species called Euproops danae. The researchers found the crab brain in Mazon Creek, Illinois, where conditions consist of iron carbonate minerals named siderite, which the corpse of the crab was wrapped in - fossilizing it for all of that time.

Russell Bicknell, the led author on the study, and paleontologist at the University of New England in Maine, spoke to Live Science and said, "This is the first and only evidence of a brain in a fossilized horseshoe crab." Bicknell clarified that over the millions of years, the brain tissue of the crab decomposed, but due to the fossilization, the mineral kaolinite created a perfect mold of the brain. "We have a mold of the brain, not the brain itself. If we start looking, we may be lucky enough to find more brain fossils", said Bicknell.

For more information on this story, check out this link here.