Cambrian Fossil Pushes Back Evolution of Complex Brains

Summary:
     The discovery of a well-preserved fossil of an extinct arthropod, known as a Fuxianhuia protensa, shows that anatomically complex brains evolved earlier than previously thought and that complex brains have had little change over the course of evolution. According to University of Arizona neurobiologist Nicholas Strausfeld, who co-authored the study describing the specimen, the fossil is the earliest known remains to show a brain. Embedded in mud stones deposited during the Cambrian period 520 million years ago in what today is the Yunnan Province in China, the approximately 3-inch-long fossil, represents an extinct lineage of arthropods combining an advanced brain anatomy with a primitive body plan. This fossil fills in a missing link of arthropod evolutionary history as well as providing a solution to the long-standing debate about how and when complex brains evolved.

Relevance:
     This article is relevant to the biology curriculum because it talks about natural selection as well as  evolution, specifically how and when the complex brain first developed. Although not many specific examples are given, this article talks about how the survival of the fittest arthropods gave rise to the next generation of anatomically complex brains which is based on the idea of natural selection. This article, also provides information about 'science vs. pseudoscience' of the development of a complex brain. Particularly, it supports the science side due to the fact that it talks about a fossil showing the presence of a complex brain rather than the idea that many organisms today were given a complex brain because of religious reasons.

Biology News Net October 10, 2012
http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2012/10/10/cambrian_fossil_pushes_back_evolution_of_complex_brains.html