Heart of our evolution

Professor Kate Trinajstic inspects the ancient fossils at the Western Australian Museum. Inset: The Gogo fish fossil where the 380-million-year-old, 3D preserved heart was discovered by researchers. Researchers have discovered a 380-million-year-old heart - the oldest ever found - alongside a separate fossilised stomach, intestine and liver in an ancient jawed fish, shedding new light on the evolution of our own bodies. The new research , found that the position of the organs in the body of arthrodires - an extinct class of armoured fishes that flourished through the Devonian period from 419.2 million years ago to 358.9 million years ago - is similar to modern shark anatomy, offering vital new evolutionary clues. Lead researcher John Curtin Distinguished Professor Kate Trinajstic, from Curtin's School of Molecular and Life Sciences and the Western Australian Museum, said the discovery was remarkable given that soft tissues of ancient species were rarely preserved and it was even rarer to find 3D preservation. "As a palaeontologist who has studied fossils for more than 20 years, I was truly amazed to find a 3D and beautifully preserved heart in a 380-million-year-old ancestor," Professor Trinajstic said. "Evolution is often thought of as a series of small steps, but these ancient fossils suggest there was a larger leap between jawless and jawed vertebrates.