Trilobites dating back 508 million years have been found preserved in volcanic material, revealing never-before-seen detail in 3D. Their fossilization was so rapid that small shells were preserved in place, and soft tissues including mouth parts and internal organs can still be seen.
The trilobites were buried in lava flows, the hot, dense material that erupts from volcanoes and sometimes reaches speeds as high as 200 meters (656 feet) In the second. Normally, it burns any life in its path, but this can change in a marine environment.
“The sea surface onto which the ash flowed would have been deadly hot, and would have burned animals at shallow depths,” says the study co-author. Dr. Greg Edgecombe “The ash must have mixed with seawater as it picked up and carried the trilobites that lived on the sea floor. This mixing through the seawater column must have cooled the ash sufficiently,” the archaeologist at the Natural History Museum in London told IFLScience.
These ancient wonders were collected in the Atlas of Morocco, and were given the name “Pompeii” trilobites due to their exquisite preservation in ash. They’re incredibly old, but they’re not the oldest trilobites ever found.
It is about 508 million years old, making it younger than the oldest trilobites, which date back to about 521 million years ago. There is also an even older burrow-shaped trace fossil, called Rusophycus, which is thought to have been the work of trilobites and is over 528 million years old.
However, the whip snapper is still remarkable for the degree of preservation it exhibits.
“What makes our specimens unique, especially pristine, is the preservation of their three-dimensional appendages,” Edgecombe continued. “The appendages are not flattened, reoriented or broken. They are preserved in their proximal life orientations. Because they are preserved as empty space in the stony matrix, we can image them cross-sectionally to see them in 3D.”
Microscopic reconstruction of the trilobite Gigoutella mauretanica in ventral view.
Image credit: © Arnaud MAZURIER, IC2MP, University. Poitiers
“Appendages preserved in shale can preserve their bristles beautifully, but the fossils are so compressed that they are almost two-dimensional, and we have to use destructive sampling to mechanically drill out the upper parts of the appendages in order to see the lower ones. Our specimens are as perfect after study as they were.” before.”
These never-before-seen details mean we now see trilobites closer to real life than we’ve ever seen them before, complete with a slit-like mouth and unique vertical feeding appendages. Is not she beautiful?
The study was published in the journal Sciences.
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