The oldest known intact brain from a vertebrate has been discovered in a 319 million year old fish fossil

A 319 million year old fossilized fish skull, first removed from an English coal mine over a century ago, has revealed the oldest preserved vertebrate brain through a CT scan in a study led by University of Michigan researchers.

The roughly inch-long brain and cranial nerves belonged to an extinct species of ray-finned fishes, which today includes species like salmon, goldfish, cod and tuna.

The micro-CT scan showed that the brain was well preserved and replaced with a dense mineral during the fossilization process.

The discovery sheds new light on the evolution of ray-finned fishes and highlights the importance of preserving previously discovered fossils for future study.

The study was published in the scientific journal “Nature”.