What a fossil hunter nearly passed over a decade ago turned out to be a fossilized dinosaur brain.
The fossil was tiny and resembled just one of many small pebbles along the British coastline, according to English amatuer fossil hunter Jamie Hiscocks.
According to experts, the tissue was essentially “pickled” when the dinosaur died, which is how it was preserved for such an extended period of time.
Iguanadon, the species likely related to the one discovered
University of Cambridge scientist David Norman said in a statement, “What we think happened is that this particular dinosaur died in or near a body of water, and its head ended up partially buried in the sediment at the bottom. Since the water had little oxygen and was very acidic, the soft tissues of the brain were likely preserved and cast before the rest of its body was buried in the sediment.”
Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), researchers were able to identify structures within the brain including meninges, collagen strands, blood vessels, and structures from the cortex.
The structures appeared to be similar to those found in birds and crocodiles, modern-day descendants of dinosaurs.
Norman told Live Science, “It was indeed structured rather like that seen typically in reptiles. It also does not show that dinosaurs were necessarily very smart — their brains did not fill their braincases in this instance.”
In reptiles, the brain does not take up the entire braincase. Instead, the remaining space is taken up by a dense area of blood vessels. Experts assume that this was probably the case in dinosaurs as well.
The tissue is likely from a species similar to Iguanadon, a large herbivorous dinosaur that existed 133 million years ago in the early Cretaceous period.
