A recent study published in the journal Nature has revealed detailed information about the brain nervous system found in an ancient fossil.

The fossil is as old as 520 million years and appears like a spider. The remains shows clear proofs of nerve cords that are in its trunk and also, of its brain. Dubbed as the great appendage arthropods used to have joint legs and huge claws like attachments that stuck out from their heads.

"The nervous system is one of the more reliable tool-kits we have. We were trying to investigate whether there was evidence for the preservation of neural tissues from very early parts of the animal fossil record", said Greg Edgecombe from the Natural History Museum.

While explaining, he mentioned that there were significant similarities in the nervous systems of most of the animal groups. Palaeontologists take assistance of these similarities for further studies about the relation between these groups of animals and their nervous system.

The detailed studies conducted on the fossil have further proved that the ancestors of scorpions and spiders got separated around half-a-billion years back, which were closely related earlier.

The studied fossil was found in South China recently and has been identified under genus Alalcomenaeus. The creatures under this group used to have large appendages for swimming and crawling.