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Cambrian ‘sap-sucking’ molluscan radulae among small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs)

Molluscs have produced an extensive fossil record, owing to the prevalence of robust biomineralized shells among this clade. By contrast, most other components of molluscan anatomy are seldom preserved. Importantly, little is known of the evolutionary history of the unique molluscan feeding apparatu...

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Autor principal: Slater, Ben J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10050940/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36987646
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0257
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author Slater, Ben J.
author_facet Slater, Ben J.
author_sort Slater, Ben J.
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description Molluscs have produced an extensive fossil record, owing to the prevalence of robust biomineralized shells among this clade. By contrast, most other components of molluscan anatomy are seldom preserved. Importantly, little is known of the evolutionary history of the unique molluscan feeding apparatus—the radula. A scarcity of fossil radulae has hampered our understanding of the ancestral condition, and of the dietary ecology of early molluscs. The handful of known fossil radulae all point to early molluscs as simple deposit feeders that obtained food via rasping or scraping. This study reports microscopic radulae preserved as ‘small carbonaceous fossils' (SCFs) from Cambrian (Stage 4–Wuliuan, approximately 514–504.5 Ma) strata of Sweden. These rare fossil radulae offer novel insights into the feeding anatomy and ecology of early molluscs. Each radula comprises a uniseriate arc of (≤10) blade-shaped teeth, fringed by a slicing keel. This distinctive morphology is strikingly convergent with the radulae of extant sacoglossan heterobranch gastropods—such radulae are specially adapted for piercing the cell walls of green algal tissues to enable suctorial feeding on the cytoplasm contents. Discovery of analogous Cambrian radulae demonstrates this specialized form of herbivory had already evolved among molluscs more than half a billion years ago.
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spelling pubmed-100509402023-03-30 Cambrian ‘sap-sucking’ molluscan radulae among small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs) Slater, Ben J. Proc Biol Sci Palaeobiology Molluscs have produced an extensive fossil record, owing to the prevalence of robust biomineralized shells among this clade. By contrast, most other components of molluscan anatomy are seldom preserved. Importantly, little is known of the evolutionary history of the unique molluscan feeding apparatus—the radula. A scarcity of fossil radulae has hampered our understanding of the ancestral condition, and of the dietary ecology of early molluscs. The handful of known fossil radulae all point to early molluscs as simple deposit feeders that obtained food via rasping or scraping. This study reports microscopic radulae preserved as ‘small carbonaceous fossils' (SCFs) from Cambrian (Stage 4–Wuliuan, approximately 514–504.5 Ma) strata of Sweden. These rare fossil radulae offer novel insights into the feeding anatomy and ecology of early molluscs. Each radula comprises a uniseriate arc of (≤10) blade-shaped teeth, fringed by a slicing keel. This distinctive morphology is strikingly convergent with the radulae of extant sacoglossan heterobranch gastropods—such radulae are specially adapted for piercing the cell walls of green algal tissues to enable suctorial feeding on the cytoplasm contents. Discovery of analogous Cambrian radulae demonstrates this specialized form of herbivory had already evolved among molluscs more than half a billion years ago. The Royal Society 2023-03-29 2023-03-29 /pmc/articles/PMC10050940/ /pubmed/36987646 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0257 Text en © 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Palaeobiology
Slater, Ben J.
Cambrian ‘sap-sucking’ molluscan radulae among small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs)
title Cambrian ‘sap-sucking’ molluscan radulae among small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs)
title_full Cambrian ‘sap-sucking’ molluscan radulae among small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs)
title_fullStr Cambrian ‘sap-sucking’ molluscan radulae among small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs)
title_full_unstemmed Cambrian ‘sap-sucking’ molluscan radulae among small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs)
title_short Cambrian ‘sap-sucking’ molluscan radulae among small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs)
title_sort cambrian ‘sap-sucking’ molluscan radulae among small carbonaceous fossils (scfs)
topic Palaeobiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10050940/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36987646
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0257
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