the fossil was found in 2004 by a
collector who was walking on the
foreshore in Bexhill in Sussex and I got
quite interested because the surface
textures did look as though they might
be the membranes associated with the
coverings of the brain and what we then needed to do
was really sort of
look in more detail and start to
investigate the actual surface
structures and maybe see whether we could probe
into the interior of the object using
scanning electron microscopy
soft tissues really need special preservation conditions
and so usually you need
low oxygen to stop
bacteria for example from decaying and
breaking down the tissues themselves
really it's a race against time to try
and preserve the fidelity of these
tissues and their actual appearance
before decay comes in and removes them
and what we believe happened is that the
skull the central portion here was
buried in relatively shallow but stagnant water
so as the animal died
its head must have tipped
over into a stagnant pond and that
particular stagnant environment was one
that promoted the preservation of the
soft tissues and this amazing specimen
has preserved the not only the texture
and structure of the meninges
these very tough membranes that surround
the actual soft parts of the brain but
the mineralisation has also preserved
the fine blood vessels running through
those textures and also the really fine
capillaries and a little bit of the
cortex of the brain immediately beneath
those membranes so this isn't a
revelation of course the dinosaur had a
brain but we're actually seeing some of
the textures of the brain themselves
which I never thought we'd ever do
