Fossils Found Reveal Unseen 'Footprint' Maker
The trilobites were a very common group of marine animals during the 300 million years of the Palaeozoic Era with hard, calcified, external armour-like skeletons over their bodies. They disappeared with a mass extinction event about 250 million years ago which wiped out about 96% of all marine species.
Fossil of Megistaspis trilobite with preserved digestive structures: crop and intestine with digestive caeca.
“We believe this specialised type of legs are the ones that produced the fossil traces named Cruziana rugosa, thought to be from a trilobite but the actual trace-maker was previously unknown. These marine animals ploughed the sediment in the sea floor for food with their forward legs, while holding their heads tilted downward, leaving behind a double groove with parallel scratches made by the spines on the legs.
Dr García-Bellido, Juan Gutiérrez-Marco of the Spanish National Research Council and colleagues present for the first time the preserved gut with associated digestive structures plus a complete set of both branches of the trilobite legs.
Cruziana species are one of the most abundant trace fossils found in the lower Palaeozoic sediments across Gondwana but little was known of the particular process producing the distinct Cruziana rugosa traces, where imprints are aligned in sets of up to 12 parallel scratches.
The digestive structures seen also include a unique combination of features: a ‘crop’ together with several pairs of digestive glands or caeca in the upper parts of the digestive system. Other trilobite fossils have been seen with either a crop or the paired digestive caeca but, until now, they have never been found together.
Fossil of Megistaspis trilobite showing the legs of one side: those on the head (legs 1–3) carrying short strong spines (yellow arrowheads), while those on the thorax (legs 4, 5) are smooth.
Credit: University of Adelaide
The research involved collaboration between the University of Adelaide/South Australian Museum, the Spanish Research Council and Spanish Geological Survey, and the Universities of Vila Real and Coimbra in Portugal.
Contacts and sources:
Dr Diego Garcia-Bellido
Ms Robyn Mills
University of Adelaide
Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2017/01/fossils-found-reveal-unseen-footprint.html
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