Oldest example of well-preserved vertebrate brain found in 319-million-year-old fossilised fish

A 319-million-year-old fossilised fish has revealed the oldest example of a well-preserved vertebrate brain, according to scientists.

The preserved creature, pulled from a coal mine in England more than a century ago, has a skull which contains a brain and one-inch long nerves according to a scan.

University of Birmingham and University of Michigan (USA) scientists believe the find sheds a light into the make-up of the brain and nervous system, as well as how major group of fish alive today - ray-finned fishes - evolved.

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