Scientists from the United States are one step closer to uncovering the clever mystery of invertebrates. They learned how their brains formed and how vertebrates have a relationship with it.
cephalopod , including squid, octopus and cuttlefish , is considered the smartest invertebrates. Their brain mass to weight ratio is the largest among invertebrates, and the nervous system is also the most complex. These creatures can quickly process information, change the shape, color and even texture of the body, and integrate with the environment.
They can also communicate, show signs of space learning and play: octopus in the aquarium will throw bottles and toys into vortexes and catch them. Characteristics and tools of cephalopods Sexual behavior . However, science still cannot be sure why these animals have such developed brains.
published in the journal Contemporary Biology Harvard (US) scientists believe that they are close to solving the mystery. The authors of this work used a new near-real-time imaging technique (a series of images taken every ten minutes) to observe the production of neurons in the squid Doryteuthis pealeii embryos, a famous model organism in neuroscience . They then studied how these cells adapt to the nervous system. Tracked cells were stained with fluorescent dye.
What scientists saw surprised them. The behavior of nerve cells is very similar to that of vertebrates during nervous system development. But the ancestors of the two were separated from their common blood about 500 million years ago, so scientists believe that vertebrates have their own brain cell formation mechanism.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that cephalopods and vertebrates not only use similar mechanisms to create their intellectual organs, but also the neural cell tissues are similar in size, tissue and how nucleus move. Going forward, the team plans to study how different cell types appear in the brains of cephalopods.
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