Suspicious Minds: The Secrets of Fossil Brains

Wednesday 30th Jul 2025, 10.00am

Dinosaur bones and the ‘hard parts’ of other prehistoric creatures can famously be preserved as fossils, providing us with a tantalising – and tangible – glimpse into the past. But what about the much more delicate soft tissues? Can these be preserved too? Incredibly, the answer is yes. Forensic anthropologist Alexandra Morton-Hayward is fascinated by the exceptional preservation of soft nervous tissues, and studies the way in which biomolecules degrade over deep time. Here she tells us about her research on fossil brains, explaining that – while still extremely rare – they might be a little more common than we first realise.