Oldest world heart - They discover the oldest heart in the world: a 380 million-year-old fossil belonging to some fish that populated the Earth along with sharks.
A team of paleontologists has found the oldest heart in the world, with an age of 380 million years, next to a fossilized stomach, intestine and liver. The heart has become the oldest ever found and the results have been published in Science.
The fossil corresponds to an arthrodyr, a class of armored fish that lived up to 50 million years ago, during the Devonian (between 419.2 million years ago and 358.9 million years ago), the period known as the Age of Fish.
With the arrival of the Devonian mass extinction, it is estimated that about 83% of the species that inhabited the Earth disappeared, probably due to an increase in radiation levels. However, arthrodiri were able to survive alongside sharks and other bony fish.
Oldest world heart
At that time, the Gogo Formation (now located in the Geikie Gorge National Park in Western Australia), the place was a reef teeming with life. Therefore, over the decades, more than 50 species of fish have been found.
However, there is something special about this very old heart fossil: it is perfectly preserved in 3D and preserves soft tissues, a kind of gift that paleontologists always want to stumble upon.
"As a paleontologist who has studied fossils for more than 20 years, I was very surprised to find a beautifully preserved 3D heart in a 380 million-year-old ancestor," she explains to EurekAlert! Kate Trinajstic, paleontologist at Curtin University (Australia).
The author adds that these fish have a very similar anatomy to that of current sharks, because they have the heart in the mouth and just below the gills.
Oldest world heart 2022
"Evolution is often thought of as a series of small steps, but these ancient fossils suggest that there was a larger leap between jawless and jawed vertebrates," he explains.
According to the paleontologist, the characteristics of these first vertebrates open a window to better understand the evolution of our own bodies. In this sense, it is a golden opportunity to understand how the neck and head changed to form jaws.
"For the first time, we can see all the organs together in a primitive jawed fish, and we were especially surprised to learn that they were not so different from us," he underlines.
However, the fossil remains found suggest that lungfish evolved differently from these battleships, because no remains of lungs have been found. On the contrary, they had a large liver that allowed them to float, like sharks.
Oldest world heart study
On the other hand, the authors of the study have stated that without current technological tools, this finding would not have been possible.
"These new discoveries of soft organs in these ancient fish are really the dreams of paleontologists, because they are undoubtedly the best preserved in the world for this time," said John Long, co-author of the study.
According to this professor from Flinder University (Australia), the Gogo fossils have offered humanity incredible discoveries, such as the origin of sex, so it should be considered a world heritage site.
Per Ahlberg, co-author of the study from the University of Uppsala (Sweden), has described as "exceptional" the conservation of soft tissues in 3 dimensions, since these are usually found in flattened fossils, "little more than a stain on the rock".
"We are also very fortunate because Moderna techniques allow us to study these fragile soft tissues without destroying them," he said. "A couple of decades ago, the project would have been impossible."
