Making Heads or Tails of Sclerocormus parviceps

No sooner has the likes of Oliver Rieppel, (Rowe Family Curator of Evolutionary Biology at the Field Museum, Chicago) and Nick Fraser (National Museums of Scotland), in collaboration with scientists from China “unzipped” the bizarre Triassic marine reptile Atopodentatus unicus*, another academic paper comes along introducing the equally peculiar looking Sclerocormus parviceps to the world.

A number of media outlets have already covered this news story, but in this article we will take a slightly different approach, focusing on the rapid evolutionary changes that seem to have taken place in marine ecosystems following the End Permian mass extinction event.

Sclerocormus parviceps

The Complete Specimen of Sclerocormus parviceps (Holotype Reference AGB6265)

Sclerocormus parviceps fossil material.

Picture credit: Da-yong Jiang (Peking University)

The photograph above shows the various components that make up the holotype specimen.  The scale bars to the left and in the centre each measure 25 centimetres in length.  The long, thin, whip-like tail is on the left of the photograph, the skull on the right.

From the Majiashan Quarry

The specimen was excavated from Bed 719 in the Majiashan Quarry, near the city of Chaohu in Anhui Province (eastern China).  These, predominately limestone beds are highly fossiliferous, and a huge variety of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils are known from this location.  The strata was laid down in a shallow, tropical sea environment not long after the End Permian extinction event and as a result, the fossils found in these rocks have provided palaeontologists with a unique opportunity to examine how marine fauna bounced back after the extinction that is believed to have wiped out around 95% of all marine life.

Sclerocormus parviceps – Not Your Typical Ichthyosauriform

Writing in the on-line journal “Scientific Reports”, the researchers describe this new type of marine reptile as a basal member of the ichthyosauriforms.  The fossil material dates from around 248 million years ago (Olenekian faunal stage of the Lower Triassic), it suggests that if a long-tailed, short-snouted marine reptile existed at this time, then these reptiles must have diversified rapidly during the Early Triassic.  Although, related to the ichthyosaurs, those dolphin-like, super sleek animals with their long jaws and fishy tails, as S. parviceps was so different from the typical ichthyosaur body plan it indicates that there must have been a period of very rapid evolution.

A Scale Drawing of Sclerocormus parviceps

A scale drawing of Sclerocormus parviceps.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur modified from an illustration by Nicolay Zverkov

A Serpentine Tail

Measuring around 1.6 metres long from that stubby snout to the end of the serpentine tail Sclerocormus parviceps is one of the largest types of marine reptile known from the Lower Triassic.  Based on an analysis of the fossil material, in comparison to Late Triassic ichthyosaurs, Sclerocormus would have been a relatively poor swimmer.  In addition, whilst many of the later ichthyosaurs evolved into apex predators, the short -snouted Sclerocormus seems to have specialised in eating small, soft-bodied creatures.

A Suction Feeder

The scientists speculate that the toothless Sclerocormus used its short snout to create pressure and suck up food like a syringe.  It looks very different from its relatives and it probably behaved very differently too.  Sclerocormus could be considered the “black sheep” of this particular group of marine reptiles and as it was so very different from its relatives it tells palaeontologists a lot about the rapid exploitation of ecosystem niches by vertebrates after the mass extinction event.

The Skull of Sclerocormus parviceps (b) and a Line Drawing Illustrating the Individual Bones (b2)

The skull of Sclerocormus parviceps (b) with an explanatory line drawing identifying individual bones (b2).

Picture credit: Scientific Reports

The Crushed Skull of Sclerocormus parviceps

The picture above shows (b) a close up of the skull material and (b2) a line drawing indicating the individual position of the bones.  Although, crushed the palaeontologists can make out a lot of detail regarding the skull morphology of this marine reptile.  The scale bars represent 1 cm (b) and 2 cm (b2).

Key

Skull elements. Abbreviations: a?, angular; ar?, articular; d?, dentary; f, frontal; j?, jugal, l?, lacrimal; m, maxilla; n, nasal; p, parietal; pm, premaxilla; po, postorbital; pof, postfrontal; prf, prefrontal; q, quadrate; sa?, surangular; scl, scleral ossicles; sq, squamosal and st, supratemporal.

Commenting on the significance of this discovery, Dr Rieppel stated:

“Sclerocormus tells us that ichthyosauriforms evolved and diversified rapidly at the end of the Lower Triassic period.  We don’t have many marine reptile fossils from this period, so this specimen is important because it suggests that there’s diversity that hasn’t been uncovered yet.”

The Triassic Timescale and Marine Reptile Diversity

Although, the marine reptile fossil record for the Lower and Middle Triassic is poor, scientists have been able to use recent fossil discoveries from China to help plot the evolution of this important group of marine reptiles.

The authors of the scientific paper plotted the diversity of species during the Triassic and their evidence suggests that there was not a single burst of evolution during the Early to the Middle Triassic, but at least two waves of marine reptile diversification, separated by a decline in speciation.

Two Waves of Marine Reptile Diversification

In addition, the scientists conclude that the first burst of evolution led to a rapid increase in the Ichthyosauromorpha, the ichthyosauriforms such as Sclerocormus and the related Hupehsuchia.  This was followed by a second period of rapid marine evolution, but this time it was the Sauropterygia (placodonts and their relatives) and the closely related Saurosphargidae that seem to have evolved most rapidly.

Two Bursts of Marine Reptile Evolution in the Early to Middle Triassic

The diversity of Triassic marine reptiles.

Picture credit: Scientific Reports with additional annotation by Everything Dinosaur

Plotting the Triassic

The graph above shows species diversity over time through the Triassic.  The black line in the graph shows raw data from the fossil record, however, as the fossil record for marine reptiles from this time is far from complete, the scientists have inflated the stratigraphic ranges of species to account for gaps in the fossil record.  The red dotted line plots the data where half of the species are assumed to have their records missing from the faunal sub-stages of the Triassic.  The blue dotted line shows a more extreme view where all species known to date are assumed to be missing records from the faunal sub-stages before and after the actual date of a fossil discovery.

The data, however it is plotted, does show two distinct evolutionary phases, lots of new species in a relatively short time.

Rapid Evolutionary Changes

Explaining the team’s findings in the context of Darwinian evolution, Dr Rieppel explained:

“Darwin’s model of evolution consists of small, gradual changes over a long period of time, and that’s not quite what we’re seeing here.  These ichthyosauriforms seem to have evolved very quickly, in short bursts of lots of change, in leaps and bounds.”

Gradual change, a sort of slow, creeping evolution may not have taken place in shallow seas immediately following the End Permian extinction event.  With so many vacant niches to exploit, those vertebrates that survived the extinction seem to have radiated rapidly, evolving a myriad of specialist forms such as Sclerocormus parviceps.  This may be an example of “punctuated equilibrium” a form of evolution proposed by the famous palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould and others whereby evolutionary change occurs relatively rapidly, alternating with longer periods of relative evolutionary stability.

For models and replicas of marine reptiles and other sea monsters: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Animal Scale Figures.

The Triassic Timescale – An Explanation

In the line graph above, Everything Dinosaur team members have labelled the three Epochs that form the Triassic on the horizontal timeline (Lower, Middle and Upper).  Underneath the graph, we have annotated the faunal sub-stages listed by providing a key showing the faunal stage that each sub-stage is associated with (Olenekian, Anisian, Ladinian, Carnian and Norian).  For some readers the term faunal sub-stage may be unfamiliar to them, here is a brief explanation.

Biostratigraphic dating in conjunction with relative dating and more recently methods such as radiometric dating and palaeomagnetism have enabled scientists to date events preserved in the geological record.  These time intervals allow a geological period, in this case the Triassic to be established.  However, to explore in more detail the geological record laid down over the tens of millions of years represented by a geological period, this immense amount of time is further divided up into epochs, faunal stages and sub-faunal stages.  It is just like the pages of a book being divided up into paragraphs, the pages themselves being grouped into chapters.

Explaining the Triassic Epochs, Faunal Stages and Sub-stages

The Triassic comprises of three Epochs (also called series): Lower, Middle and Upper

These in turn are divided into seven faunal stages:
Lower = Induan, Olenekian
Middle = Anisian, Ladinian
Upper = Carnian, Norian, Rhaetian

As the faunal stages themselves represent many millions of years, changes in the geological record are used to divide these stages themselves into a series of smaller units called faunal sub-stages:

The seven faunal stages of the Triassic are further divided into fifteen faunal sub-stages namely:

Induan = upper Griesbachian and the Dienerian

Olenekian = Smithian and the Spathian

Anisian= Aegean, Bithynian, Pelsonian and the Illyrian

Ladinian =Fassanian, Longobardian

Carnian = Julian and the Tuvalian

Norian = Lacian, Alaunian, Sevatian

*To read an update on the bizarre Triassic marine reptile Atopodentatus unicus: Atopodentatus unzipped.

Sarmientosaurus musacchioi – A “Drop Head” Dinosaur

The beautifully preserved skull of a new type of titanosaur is helping scientists to understand the evolution of these herbivorous dinosaurs.  Titanosaur skull fossils are exceptionally rare, but thanks to the skull of Sarmientosaurus musacchioi, palaeontologists have got a “heads up” on basal titanosaurs, ironically computer modelling and an analysis of the skull morphology suggests that this dinosaur may have specialised in feeding on low growing vegetation.  If that was the case, then this long-necked dinosaur probably spent a lot of its time with its head pointing downwards towards the ground.

An Illustration of Sarmientosaurus musacchioi

New basal titanosauriform from Argentina (Sarmientosaurus).

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur (background from the artwork of Julius Csotonyi

Rare Titanosaur Skull Fossil Discovery

Reporting in the on line academic journal PLOS One, the team of palaeontologists which includes lead author Dr Rubén D. F. Martínez (National University of Patagonia), describe a beautifully preserved and almost complete skull specimen excavated from strata which makes up the Lower Member of the Upper Cretaceous Bajo Barreal Formation in south, central Chubut Province, Patagonia (southern Argentina).

The fossils, comprising the skull plus elements from the neck are believed to date from around 95 million years ago (Middle Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous).

Scientists Show Off the Beautifully Preserved Dinosaur Skull

Dr Martinez (right) and Dr Lamanna (left) with Sarmientosaurus skull.

Picture credit: Carnegie Museum of Natural History

The Titanosaur a Member of the Sauropodomorpha

The skulls of members of the Sauropodomorpha, the suborder of dinosaurs to which the titanosaurs belong, tend to be disproportionately small when compared to the size of the body.  In addition, the skulls of these dinosaurs are at the end of a long neck.  When an animal died and the carcase rotted away, then the skull bones were likely to become detached from the rest of the skeleton.  Skull fossils of sauropods are exceptionally rare.  In titanosauriforms, only three other skull fossils are known:

• Rapetosaurus (from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar)
• Tapuiasaurus (from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil)
• Nemegtosaurus (from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia

The discovery of an almost complete titanosaur skull will help scientists to understand more about the anatomy, evolution and behaviour of these dinosaurs.  For example, analysis of the orbit within the skull and the relative position of the eye suggests that this dinosaur had particularly good vision.  Such is the completeness of the fossil material that the scientists, which included Gondwana titanosaur specialist Dr Matthew Lamanna (Carnegie Museum of Natural History), have been able to piece together an endocast of the brain and demonstrate the shape of the inner ear.

Views of the Skull of Sarmientosaurus (Sarmientosaurus musacchioi)

A view of the skull (lateral views)

Picture credit: PLOS One

The picture above shows the prepared skull seen in right lateral view (photograph A and line drawing B) and left lateral view (C).  The naris slopes gently downwards towards the premaxilla and the orbit (eye-socket) is quite large.  The simple, peg-like teeth (57 teeth associated with the fossil), project forward, an adaptation perhaps to assist with the combing action of feeding.  The scale bar in the picture above represents ten centimetres.

For models and replicas of titanosaurs and other prehistoric animals: Prehistoric Animal Models and Figures.

Dr Lamanna noted:

“Titanosaurs included the biggest land animals ever, so we want to know as much about them as we can.  But to truly understand a creature, you need to have its head and because titanosaur skulls are super-rare, lots of important aspects of how these dinosaurs lived and behaved have really been anybody’s guess.”

CAT Scans Reveal Previously Unseen Features in Titanosaur Fossil Material

The skull fossil has provided palaeontologists with their first really good view of a basal titanosaur and it has provided new information regarding the shape of the brain case and the senses of these dinosaurs.  For example, CAT scans have enabled the researchers to model the structure of the inner ear, from this they have deduced that this dinosaur had good hearing, able to detect a wide range of low frequency airborne sounds.  This perhaps provides a clue to how these herding animals communicated.

The Excavation of the Rare Titanosaur Fossil Material

Sarmientosaurus fossils at the dig site.

Picture credit: PLOS One

The photographs above show the articulated skull lying upside down partially eroded out of the rock (A), note that the skull is seen in ventral view (viewed from underneath) and that the geological hammer provides an approximate scale.

The black arrow in photograph A shows the position of an ossified cervical tendon lying very close to the back of the skull.  Photographs B and C show two views of the articulated skull and the partial cervical series (neck bones) exposed in the rock (ventral view).  The black arrows indicate the position of cervical tendons.  Photograph D shows a cervical rib (white arrow) and its relationship in the matrix to an ossified cervical tendon (black arrow), the field instruments provide an approximate scale.

Ossified Bony Tendons

When compared to the Tapuiasaurus fossil skull from Brazil which dates from around 115 million years ago, the teeth and skull morphology of Sarmientosaurus are relatively primitive.  The researchers have concluded that radically different titanosauriforms probably co-existed for much of the Cretaceous.  This suggests that different types of titanosaur evolved to fill different ecological niches and perhaps this might help to explain why these types of plant-eaters made up a substantial portion of the herbivorous mega fauna fossils associated with the Southern Hemisphere in the Late Cretaceous.

Views of the Restored Skull of Sarmientosaurus

Views of the prepared skull of Sarmientosaurus (scale bar = 10 cm).

Picture credit: PLOS One

In the picture above, A, C and E are photographs of the skull in various views.  A frontal view (A), a view of the back (B) and a caudodorsal view (C) which is a view of the back of the skull from the orientation of looking down on it from the top.  The images B, D and F are diagrams that show the individual bones and skull features as preserved in the fossil material.  Sarmientosaurus is the first non-avian dinosaur to show evidence of a very long bony tendon in the neck.  The research team compare the thin ossified tendon with that found in extant Cranes.  The function of this structure is not known.

Superior Senses When Compared to Other Sauropodomorphs

The CAT scans provided a remarkable amount of detailed information regarding the sensory capabilities of this titanosaur.  The large eye-socket indicated good eyesight and the orientation of the balance organ of the inner ear suggests that this dinosaur probably held its head with the snout facing downward.  From this it has been inferred that Sarmientosaurus fed mainly on low-growing plants.

Professor Lawrence Witmer, a specialist in cranial anatomy and one of the co-authors of the scientific paper explained:

“The Sarmientosaurus skull is beautifully-preserved, which meant that we could tease out a ton of information.  It was really exciting for us to work through the CT scan data because it gave us a glimpse into the biology and lifestyle of this animal like we rarely get with dinosaurs.”

What’s in a Name?

The genus name honours the small town of Sarmiento in Chubut Province which is close to the fossil quarry where the skull was found.  The trivial name is in tribute to the late Dr Eduardo Musacchio, a palaeontologist and professor at the National University of Patagonia who was a mentor to Dr Martínez as well as a close friend.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

Seed Clue to How Birds Survived the Cretaceous Extinction Event

The birds that are around today, might have the seed-eating habit of an ancestor to thank for enabling their kind to survive the extinction event that saw the demise of the dinosaurs.  A study published in the scientific journal “Current Biology” suggests that whilst the meat-eating and insectivorous feathered Maniraptoran dinosaurs did not survive into the Tertiary, toothless, beaked birds may have coped with the devastation that wiped out 70% of all terrestrial vertebrates, by eating seeds.

Seed Eating a Key to Survival

The study, conducted by scientists from the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum, involved the analysis of 3,104 Maniraptoran fossil teeth from eighteen different sites in western North America (Montana, USA and Alberta, Canada).

Late Cretaceous North America – Survival of the Seed Eaters?

Study suggests the evolution of a toothless beak ideal for seed eating may have had evolutionary advantages at the end of the Cretaceous.

Picture credit: Danielle Dufault

Seed Eating Birds

The beautiful illustration above, depicts an imaginary scene in the forests of Late Cretaceous North American (Maastrichtian faunal stage).  There were probably large numbers of Maniraptoran dinosaurs represented by numerous families but these types of dinosaur along with the toothed birds did not survive the End Cretaceous mass extinction.  Those members of the Maniraptora clade that had evolved an edentulous (toothless) beak capable of holding, manipulating and cracking seeds may have had an evolutionary advantage.

In the picture above, a large dromaeosaurid dinosaur pursues a toothed bird in the background, whilst a smaller dromaeosaurid pounces on an unsuspecting lizard resting on a log.  Emerging from the hollow log is a hypothetical, toothless bird, closely related to the earliest modern birds.

A Nuclear Winter

Many scientists believe that after the extraterrestrial impact that marked the beginning of the end for the non-avian Dinosauria, the impact threw up huge amounts of dust and debris into the atmosphere.  This would have blocked out sunlight, leading to a nuclear winter with plant populations (reliant on photosynthesis to make food), crashing.  The loss of the plants led to a collapse of the entire food chain.  The plant-eaters would have died out and once there were no carcases left to scavenge, the meat-eaters would have perished too.

This new paper is one of a number of recent studies that attempts to explain why some types of animals survived, whilst other, often closely related species did not.

Toothed Dromaeosaurs Faced Extinction

Dromaeosaurid drawing for Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The Maniraptora Fossil Record

The Maniraptora fossil record (dinosaurs and the birds) is very incomplete.  The research team knew that they only had a limited number of fossils of Late Cretaceous Maniraptorans to examine and that in all likelihood there were many more species living towards the end of the Age of Dinosaurs than have been identified to date.  In addition, there was very little direct evidence of fossil species surviving the extinction event.  So to help unravel the puzzle as to why some animals died but their close relatives survived, the scientists examined the fossil record of isolated teeth.

Shed teeth tend to be more robust than the delicate and light bones of Maniraptorans and they are more numerous, so the research team had a more substantial data set to work with.

Seeds – A Readily Available Food Source

The team concluded that seeds would have survived the global devastation that occurred.  Seeds already in the ground would have been available as a food source for anything with a beak capable of eating them.

Commenting on why some animals survived whilst others went extinct, lead researcher, Derek Larson (University of Toronto) explained:

“We came up with a hypothesis that it had something to do with diet.  Looking at the diet of modern birds, we were able to reconstruct a hypothetical ancestral bird and what its likely diet would have been.  What we are envisaging is a seed-eating bird, so you’d have a relatively short and robust, strong beak, which would be able to crush these seeds.”

In August 2014, Everything Dinosaur published a study which had been conducted by an international team of researchers that looked at the rapid evolution and diversification of the  Maniraptora.   These dinosaurs evolved very rapidly and probably made up a significant proportion of the terrestrial vertebrate fauna in a number of Late Cretaceous ecosystems.

The Evolution of the Maniraptora

To read more about the rapid evolution of the Maniraptora: Downsizing Dinosaurs the Key to Survival.

The challenge to palaeontologists is to find fossil evidence of seed-eating birds being prevalent prior to the End Cretaceous extinction event and then evidence of radiation and diversification in strata laid down in younger sediments deposited beyond the famous K-T extinction boundary.

What About the Mammals?

This very interesting piece of research raises a number of other questions.  For example, a number of Cretaceous  small mammals would also have very probably eaten seeds, just like many kinds of small mammals do today.  Could seed-eating also have helped several different types of mammal survive the extinction event?  Given the success of the Maniraptora and their diversity it seems peculiar that no member of the Dinosauria evolved to take advantage of seeds as a source of food.

Many members of the Maniraptora were small, around the size of many seed-eating birds today, why weren’t these dinosaurs also able to take advantage of this food source to help them endure the nuclear winter?

Teeth Representing a Variety of Different Members of the  Maniraptora Were Studied

No evidence of teeth adapted to seed-eating were found in the study.

Picture credit: Royal Ontario Museum/University of Toronto with additional notation by Everything Dinosaur

Shed Teeth

The picture above shows a typical selection of the shed teeth used in the fossil study.  Four different types of maniraptoran were incorporated into the study.  Firstly, there were the Troodontidae, (top left) with their proportionately broader and much more prominent tooth serrations (denticles), an example of a typical Late Cretaceous North American Troodontidae would be Troodon inequalis.  Secondly, there were members of the genus Richardoestesia (top right).

These maniraptoran dinosaurs are known from a pair of jawbones and many shed teeth, two species have been assigned, based on tooth differences.  Then there are the dromaeosaurids (Dromaeosauridae).  The teeth tend to be much more finely serrated than troodontid teeth and a typical North American dromaeosaurid would have been the two-metre-long Saurornitholestes langstoni.

An Illustration of Saurornitholestes langstoni

Saurornitholestes langstoni illustration (scale drawing).

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For models and replicas of dromaeosaurids and other dinosaurs: Beasts of the Mesozoic Models.

Dinosaur and Bird Fossils

Even though only a handful of fossil bones ascribed to Aves (birds) have been found in places such as the Dinosaur Provincial Park (southern Alberta), those bones that have been discovered indicate that some volant (flying) birds as big as modern-day raptors existed during the Late Cretaceous.  Many examples of teeth from toothed birds are known from the Dinosaur Provincial Park, and at least three types of Neornithine birds have been described.

This research, that examined maniraptoran teeth across the last 18 million years of the Cretaceous, supports the idea of a sudden extinction event and the survival of Neornithine lineages as a result of some forms having evolved to exploit seeds as a food source.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

More Evidence of Organic Matter Preserved in the Mesozoic Fossil Record

Over the last few years, Everything Dinosaur has reported on a number of fascinating research projects from around the world that suggest that there may be more to the fossil record than first meets the eye. In this article, we will examine a recently published paper that proposed that traces of organic compounds had been identified in Triassic reptile bones.

As more and more sophisticated research methodologies are employed, so there has been an exponential increase in our understanding of ancient life.  One of the most controversial areas of research are those studies concerning the finding and identification of traces of organic material preserved in the fossilised bones of long-dead animals.  A team of Polish scientists have recently published in the on-line academic journal “PLOS One” a paper detailing the discovery of blood vessels and traces in protein in the bones of Triassic reptiles.

Triassic Reptile Bones

As far as we are aware at Everything Dinosaur, this is the oldest organic material identified to date.

One of the Fossil Limb Bones Used in the Study

One of the limb bones used in the study of Triassic vertebrates from Poland.

The scientists, which include researchers from the University of Silesia (Faculty of Earth Science), Jagiellonian University and the Polish Academy of Sciences report on the finding of preserved blood-vessel-like structures enclosing organic molecules that could be amino acids and fragments of other proteins including fibrils of collagen.   It is thought that the organic material had been preserved in the 247-million-year-old specimens as the bones were rapidly mineralised.

The Shores of the Ancient Tethys Ocean

For much of the Early and Middle Triassic, the central northern portions of Europe, including the countries of Poland and Germany were submerged under a shallow sea (the western edge of the mighty Tethys Ocean).  The limestone strata that was formed during this time preserve evidence of a rich and varied vertebrate fauna as a number of different types of diapsid reptile lived on the shoreline.  The most common large vertebrate fossils are Nothosaurs and the evidence of organic material preservation came from a study of Nothosaur limb bones.  In addition, the fossilised vertebrae (specifically a centrum) of an as yet unidentified Protanystropheus species was also studied.

A Model of a Triassic Marine Reptile a Nothosaurus

One of the models in the Safari Prehistoric Sealife Toob.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Studying Protanystropheus

Protanystropheus is a member of the Tanystropheidae family of Archosauromorphs, a strange group of reptiles characterised by extremely long and stiff necks that in some species represent more than half their entire body length.  It is likely that both Nothosaurs and Protanystropheus were fish-eaters (piscivores).

An Illustration of a Typical Member of the Tanystropheidae (T. longobardicus)

A drawing of the bizarre Triassic reptile Tanystropheus.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Finding Fossil Biomolecules

The team, some of which had identified potential organic material in the fossilised remains of dinosaurs from the Gobi Desert, used an array of advanced and highly sophisticated research methods to identify the biomolecules.  The team used several analysis methods including X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS), an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).  Amino acids including hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine were found.  This discovery provides the oldest evidence yet of preservation of complex organic molecules in vertebrate remains from a marine environment.

Commenting on the team’s findings researcher Dr. Andrzej Boczarowski (Faculty of Earth Science, University of Silesia) stated:

“Among other proteins, we managed to find collagen, one of the most important proteins in the bodies of animals in general and vertebrates in particular.”

Highly Magnified Images Showing Demineralised Blood Vessels from the Fossil Material

Organic matter potentially identified in Triassic vertebrae fossils.

Picture credit: PLOS One

The pictures above show some of the images of demineralised blood vessels identified from the fossil samples.

• Picture (a) – parallel-orientated fossilised blood vessels from the Protanystropheus centrum.
• Photo (b) – fossilised “floating” blood vessels from the Protanystropheus centrum revealed during the demineralisation process (removing the calcium in a EDTA solution).
• Picture (c) – and ESEM image of branching (bifurcated) blood vessels mounted on a carbon conductive tab – this organic material was identified from a Nothosaurus femur.
• Pictures (d, e and f) – stereoscopic microscopic images of isolated branch-like blood vessels from the Nothosaurus femur.

Highly Magnified Fragment of Mineralised Blood Vessel with Tubular Morphology Preserved

Highly magnified image of a blood vessel-like object showing preservation of tube shape.

Picture credit: PLOS One

ESEM Images

The picture above shows three ESEM images (g) a potential blood vessel mounted on a carbon conductive tab, (h) mineralised blood vessel showing preservation of a tubular shape from the Nothosaurus femur and (i) an image of a mineralised, damaged wall of a blood vessel from the Protanystropheus centrum.

Complex Molecular Analysis

Complex molecular analysis using highly sophisticated research techniques has yielded evidence of organic material in a number of Pleistocene specimens.  Some organic material including the remnants of blood vessels and collagen has been reported in studies of Cretaceous aged fossil material, but such findings have been questioned and contamination or an infiltration of bacteria have been put forward as more likely sources of organic material.  However, this new study further extends the age range of such potential organic material discoveries and may provide palaeontologists with further insight with regards to the biology of Early Triassic diapsid reptiles.