The 455-million-year-old skull fossil belonged to a jawless fish called Eriptychius americanus.
is not the most beautiful of fossils. However, by using modern imaging techniques, we were able to show that it preserves something unique: the oldest three-dimensional preserved vertebrate head in the fossil record. This fills a major gap in our understanding of the evolution of the skull of all vertebrates, ultimately including humans,” said Dr. Richard Dearden, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Palaeobiology at Naturalis Biodiversity Center and lead author of this new study.
The brain of this ancient fish displayed "separated, independent cartilages." And not the “solid bone or cartilage structure of jawless and jawed fish” prevalent among the species that arrived later. While succeeding species fossils exhibited a complete encasing cartilaginous structure surrounding the brain.
The study of Ordovician-era jawless fish fossils is considered highly integral to decoding the early phases of vertebrate evolution and the transition from jawless fish to jawed vertebrates. And this new study has provided remarkable further evolutionary details.The neurocranium is an integral part of the vertebrate head, itself a major evolutionary innovation1,2.
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