Research conducted on a collection of fossils from the Burgess Shale shows a unique looking animal with three eyes. Researchers say that it sheds light on the evolution of the brain and head of insects and spiders. The study was published in the journal Current Biology.
It examined 268 specimens collected in the 1980s and 1990s from a site in Yoho National Park in British Columbia. The fossils were then stored at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Dozens of the specimens contained the brain and nervous system of the half-billion-year-old Stanleycaris.
Stanleycaris are part of an ancient, extinct offshoot of the arthropod evolutionary tree called Radiodonta. They are distantly related to modern insects and spiders. Joe Moysiuk, PhD candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto said “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of discovery,”
For more information about the source click HERE