Researchers have found the earliest-known heart and blood vessels in the fossil of an ancient arthropod.
The research team found the cardiovascular system in an extremely well-preserved fossil of an arthropod that lived 520 million years ago, a London Museum of Natural History news release reported.
The species, dubbed Fuxianhuia protensa, is one of the most well-known fossils anatomically; in the past researchers were able to examine the ancient creature's complex nervous system.
"This is a significant discovery," museum palaeontologists Dr Xiaoya Ma, said in the news release. "Traditionally, there was a wide assumption that such delicate internal organ structures could not survive fossilisation, a theory now challenged by the recent discoveries of nervous and cardiovascular systems. These were not only preserved, they were preserved in exquisite detail."
The specimen was discovered at the Chengjiang fossil site in southwest China, which holds some of the oldest-known Cambrian fossils. The site holds the ancestors of many modern species; since f. protensa is an arthropod it is part of the group that encompasses "insects, spiders, lobsters and millipedes," the news release reported.
The researchers used X-ray technology to look at f. protensa's complex system of blood vessels. The fossil's nervous system showed a connection between the brain and blood vessels.
