MSU scientists uncovered as the evolution of the oral apparatus of marine invertebrate animals Brachiopod affected the complexity of the nervous system. A similar organ called Lofofor could be present at the ancestor of 99 percent species on Earth, including a person. The results published in the Journal Scientific Reports will help in the future to recreate the appearance of this mysterious creature whose remains to this day are most likely not preserved. A brief study reported in a press release on the RHF website.
Researchers applied translucent electron microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy and immunocytochemical methods for studying the nervous system of the lofofor – the tentse apparatus – at the sea brachiopod of the view Coptothyris Grayi. It turned out that this complex variety of the lofofor is innervated by three brachial nerves, but there is no additional nerve, which is usually present in other studied Brachiopod.
Thus, on the one hand, the nervous system was simplified, but the second additional nerve appeared, as well as additional nerves, which is consistent with the complex structure of the plectolof. The second additional nerve appeared due to the dual row of the supreets instead of the ordinary series at the ancestral form of brachiopods. Another modification is a partial or complete reduction in some brachial nerves, which corresponds to a decrease in the complexity of the muscles of the Lofofor and the appearance of skeletal structures that support the lophofor.
Brachiopods – sedentary naval animals having a double shell. This species appeared in the early Cambrian period (about 540 million years ago). Together with Foronids and Mshanki, they are combined into a group of tentse (Lophophorata). The Lofofor serves to catch food from the thickness of the water and consists of a brachial axis – a ribbon structure carrying a row of a suckling. Nine different morphology Lofofor is known, and the most difficult is the plkelof.