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takyon writes:

The world's first known fossilized dinosaur brain tissue has been discovered in a pebble picked up in 2004:

British and Australian scientists have identified an unassuming brown pebble, found more than a decade ago by a fossil hunter in southern England, as the first known example of fossilized dinosaur brain tissue. The fossilized brain, found by fossil enthusiast Jamie Hiscocks near Bexhill in Sussex in 2004, is most likely from a species similar to Iguanodon - a large herbivore that lived during the early cretaceous period, some 133 million years ago.

In a report of their analysis in a Special Publication of the Geological Society of London, the researchers said they believed this piece of tissue was so well-preserved because the dinosaur's brain was "pickled" in a highly acidic and low-oxygen body of water – like a bog or swamp – shortly after it died. "The chances of preserving brain tissue are incredibly small, so the discovery of this specimen is astonishing," said Alex Liu of Cambridge University's department of earth sciences, who worked on its identification.

Also at The Guardian and Science Magazine .

Remarkable preservation of brain tissues in an Early Cretaceous iguanodontian dinosaur (open, DOI: 10.1144/SP448.3) (DX)

Original Submission