Phosphatization of soft-tissue in experiments and fossils

A role for iron and oxygen chemistry in preserving soft tissues, cells and molecules from deep time

“…This 'exceptional preservation' has been observed for decades, but is not addressed by models of fossilization processes wherein an organism is buried and degraded, and spaces left by degrading organics are subsequently filled by precipitation of exogenous minerals. Modes of preservation to explain the persistence of these secondarily mineralized, but originally soft tissues include microbially mediated stabilization [6,7], early diagenetic mineralization or authigenic replacement [8][9][10], 'sulfurization' [11,12] and others (reviewed in [6,13,14]), but few of these preservation modes have been experimentally tested.…”

Soft‐Bodied Fossils Are Not Simply Rotten Carcasses – Toward a Holistic Understanding of Exceptional Fossil Preservation

“…[46][47][48][49][50][51][52] Annelids and arthropods decaying under different conditions of oxygen and temperature, for example, showed consistent patterns of morphological decay, reflecting the nature of their tissues. [49][50][51]53] Interpretations of soft-bodied fossils were informed by which features were more likely to survive decay versus those that degraded rapidly. [46,54] Observations of decay of the lancelet Branchiostoma lanceolatum, for example, were used to argue that the axial lines preserved along the trunk of conodonts represent the notochord, and that the apparent offset position of the conodont elements below the head reflects the decay of the supporting tissue.…”

“…[81,83] Decay experiments have shown that phosphatization occurs on a laboratory time scale and is not necessarily restricted to a few unusual settings. [53] Microbial activity promotes decay, destroying morphological information in soft tissues, but it is also essential to establishing the conditions that lead to the replication of soft tissues in authigenic minerals. [11,[84][85][86] The nature of microbial controls is subtle and poorly understood.…”

Three-Dimensionally Preserved Decapod Larval Compound Eyes from the Cretaceous Santana Formation of Brazil

“…Decapods, unlike other invertebrates, are commonly found disarticulated within the stomach of a fish (Wilby and Martill, 1992), and are only occasionally found intact in the surrounding matrix. Due to the favorable preservation conditions that existed in the stomach of the fish, muscle and parts of the exoskeleton of shrimps are preserved in fine detail (Wilby and Martill, 1992;Briggs et al, 1993). Maisey and De Carvalho (1995) documented a sergestid shrimp, a brachyuran crab larva, and possible palaemonid decapods from the Santana Formation, but they did not record details on their compound eyes.…”