2024-03-28T18:40:45Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/1416882022-04-25T12:08:06Zcom_10261_82com_10261_8com_10261_262578col_10261_335col_10261_262579
00925njm 22002777a 4500
dc
McNamara, Maria E.
author
Orr, P. J.
author
Kearns, S.L.
author
Alcalá, Luis
author
Anadón, Pere
author
Peñalver Mollá, Enrique
author
2010
The very labile (decay-prone), non-biomineralized, tissues of organisms are rarely fossilized. Occurrences thereof are invaluable supplements to a body fossil record dominated by biomineralized tissues, which alone are extremely unrepresentative of diversity in modern and ancient ecosystems. Fossil examples of extremely labile tissues (e.g. muscle) that exhibit a high degree of morphological fidelity are almost invariably replicated by inorganic compounds such as calcium phosphate. There is no consensus as to whether such tissues can be preserved with similar morphological fidelity as organic remains, except when enclosed inside amber. Here, we report fossilized musculature from an approximately 18 Myr old salamander from lacustrine sediments of Ribesalbes, Spain. The muscle is preserved organically, in three dimensions, and with the highest fidelity of morphological preservation yet documented from the fossil record. Preserved ultrastructural details include myofilaments, endomysium, layering within the sarcolemma, and endomysial circulatory vessels infilled with blood. Slight differences between the fossil tissues and their counterparts in extant amphibians reflect limited degradation during fossilization. Our results provide unequivocal evidence that high-fidelity organic preservation of extremely labile tissues is not only feasible, but likely to be common. This is supported by the discovery of similarly preserved tissues in the Eocene Grube Messel biota. © 2009 The Royal Society.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277: 423- 427 (2010)
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/141688
10.1098/rspb.2009.1378
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001588
19828545
Biomolecules
organic preservation
muscle
taphonomy
exceptional faunas
Organic preservation of fossil musculature with intracellular detail