First Paleontology

Ancient crustacean had elaborate heart

The 520-million-year-old crustacean F. protensa had a complex system of blood vessels that connected its body and brain. Part of what was once the animal’s gut appears as dark stains along the animal's midline. 

X. Ma

By Ashley Yeager

- More than 2 years ago

The early ancestors of insects, centipedes and crustaceans had big hearts.

A fossil from 520 million years ago shows that the now-extinct Fuxianhuia protensa had a broad spindly heart that extended into a complex system of arteries, which sent blood to the creature’s limbs and organs, including its brain, eyes and antennae.