Squid and human brains: Despite 500 million years of divergent evolution, their complex brain development remains similar

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Credit: Pixabay/ Manseok Kim

Scientists who watched nerve cells connect inside the eyes of growing squid have uncovered a remarkable secret — the cephalopods’ brains independently evolved to develop in the same way ours do.

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The intelligence of cephalopods — a class of marine animals that includes octopuses, squid and cuttlefish — has long been a subject of fascination among biologists. Unlike most invertebrates, these animals possess remarkable memories; use tools to solve problems; excel at camouflage; react with curiosity, boredom or even playful malevolence to their surroundings; and can dream, if the ripples of colors that flash across their skin as they sleep are any indication.

Now, this new study, published Dec. 5, 2022 in the journal Current Biology, suggests that key parts of the formula for advanced intelligence, on Earth at least, remain the same.

“Our conclusions were surprising because a lot of what we know about nervous system development in vertebrates has long been thought to be special to that lineage,” study senior author Kristen Koenig, a molecular biologist at Harvard University, said in a statement. “By observing the fact that the process is very similar, what it suggested to us is that these two [lineages] independently evolved very large nervous systems using the same mechanisms to build them.”

This is an excerpt. Read the full article here

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