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Involvement of microbial mats in early fossilization by decay delay and formation of impressions and replicas of vertebrates and invertebrates

Microbial mats have been hypothesized to improve the persistence and the preservation of organic remains during fossilization processes. We test this hypothesis with long-term experiments (up to 5.5 years) using invertebrate and vertebrate corpses. Once placed on mats, the microbial community coats...

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Autores principales: Iniesto, Miguel, Buscalioni, Ángela D., Carmen Guerrero, M., Benzerara, Karim, Moreira, David, López-Archilla, Ana I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4861970/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27162204
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep25716
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author Iniesto, Miguel
Buscalioni, Ángela D.
Carmen Guerrero, M.
Benzerara, Karim
Moreira, David
López-Archilla, Ana I.
author_facet Iniesto, Miguel
Buscalioni, Ángela D.
Carmen Guerrero, M.
Benzerara, Karim
Moreira, David
López-Archilla, Ana I.
author_sort Iniesto, Miguel
collection PubMed
description Microbial mats have been hypothesized to improve the persistence and the preservation of organic remains during fossilization processes. We test this hypothesis with long-term experiments (up to 5.5 years) using invertebrate and vertebrate corpses. Once placed on mats, the microbial community coats the corpses and forms a three-dimensional sarcophagus composed of microbial cells and exopolymeric substances (EPS). This coverage provides a template for i) moulding superficial features, resulting in negative impressions, and ii) generating replicas. The impressions of fly setulae, fish scales and frog skin verrucae are shaped mainly by small cells in an EPS matrix. Microbes also replicate delicate structures such as the three successive layers that compose a fish eye. The sarcophagus protects the body integrity, allowing the persistence of inner organs such as the ovaries and digestive apparatus in flies, the swim bladder and muscles in fish, and the bone marrow in frog legs. This study brings strong experimental evidence to the idea that mats favour metazoan fossilization by moulding, replicating and delaying decay. Rapid burial has classically been invoked as a mechanism to explain exceptional preservation. However, mats may play a similar role during early fossilization as they can preserve complex features for a long time.
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spelling pubmed-48619702016-05-23 Involvement of microbial mats in early fossilization by decay delay and formation of impressions and replicas of vertebrates and invertebrates Iniesto, Miguel Buscalioni, Ángela D. Carmen Guerrero, M. Benzerara, Karim Moreira, David López-Archilla, Ana I. Sci Rep Article Microbial mats have been hypothesized to improve the persistence and the preservation of organic remains during fossilization processes. We test this hypothesis with long-term experiments (up to 5.5 years) using invertebrate and vertebrate corpses. Once placed on mats, the microbial community coats the corpses and forms a three-dimensional sarcophagus composed of microbial cells and exopolymeric substances (EPS). This coverage provides a template for i) moulding superficial features, resulting in negative impressions, and ii) generating replicas. The impressions of fly setulae, fish scales and frog skin verrucae are shaped mainly by small cells in an EPS matrix. Microbes also replicate delicate structures such as the three successive layers that compose a fish eye. The sarcophagus protects the body integrity, allowing the persistence of inner organs such as the ovaries and digestive apparatus in flies, the swim bladder and muscles in fish, and the bone marrow in frog legs. This study brings strong experimental evidence to the idea that mats favour metazoan fossilization by moulding, replicating and delaying decay. Rapid burial has classically been invoked as a mechanism to explain exceptional preservation. However, mats may play a similar role during early fossilization as they can preserve complex features for a long time. Nature Publishing Group 2016-05-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4861970/ /pubmed/27162204 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep25716 Text en Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Iniesto, Miguel
Buscalioni, Ángela D.
Carmen Guerrero, M.
Benzerara, Karim
Moreira, David
López-Archilla, Ana I.
Involvement of microbial mats in early fossilization by decay delay and formation of impressions and replicas of vertebrates and invertebrates
title Involvement of microbial mats in early fossilization by decay delay and formation of impressions and replicas of vertebrates and invertebrates
title_full Involvement of microbial mats in early fossilization by decay delay and formation of impressions and replicas of vertebrates and invertebrates
title_fullStr Involvement of microbial mats in early fossilization by decay delay and formation of impressions and replicas of vertebrates and invertebrates
title_full_unstemmed Involvement of microbial mats in early fossilization by decay delay and formation of impressions and replicas of vertebrates and invertebrates
title_short Involvement of microbial mats in early fossilization by decay delay and formation of impressions and replicas of vertebrates and invertebrates
title_sort involvement of microbial mats in early fossilization by decay delay and formation of impressions and replicas of vertebrates and invertebrates
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4861970/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27162204
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep25716
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