The specimens owe their remarkable condition to the hot ash that enveloped them more than 500 million years ago during the Cambrian period.<\/p>
The ‘Pompeii trilobites’, as they have become known, provide new information about this large and diverse group of extinct marine animals, which could lead to significant discoveries about the evolution<\/a> of life on Earth, say the scientists. Their findings were published<\/a> today in the journal,\u00a0Science.<\/em><\/p> Trilobites are some of the best studied fossil marine animals on the planet. Their hard exoskeleton<\/a> has resulted in an excellent level of representation in the fossil<\/a> record, with over 20,000 species described in the past two centuries. <\/p> But the exoskeleton only tells half the story about this diverse animal group \u2013 soft tissue tells the other half. But specimens with well-preserved soft tissue are rarely found, which is why the Moroccan trilobite discovery is so significant.<\/p> Encased in hot ash and sea water, the bodies of the marine animals<\/a> would have fossilised very quickly as the ash turned swiftly to rock, according geologist Professor Abderrazak El Albani, who led the international team of scientists.<\/p> The rapid fossilisation is comparable to way inhabitants of Pompeii were preserved following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, say the scientists.<\/p> The ash moulds preserved every single segment of the trilobites’ bodies. The hair-like structures that ran along their legs can still be seen, as can the small ‘lamp shells’, a type of marine invertebrate, which were found attached to their exoskeletons. Incredibly, even the digestive tracts of the animals remain, the ash that filled them leaving them perfectly formed.<\/p> \u201cI\u2019ve been studying trilobites for nearly 40 years, but I never felt like I was looking at live animals as much as I have with these ones,” says Natural History Museum palaeontologist Dr Greg Edgecombe, who was part of the research team.<\/p> “I\u2019ve seen a lot of soft anatomy of trilobites, but it\u2019s the 3D preservation here that is truly astounding.”<\/p> A fleshy lobe covering the mouth, called a labrum, was also documented for the first time in trilobites.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cAs a scientist who has worked on fossils from different ages and locations, discovering fossils in such a remarkable state of preservation within a volcanic setting was a profoundly exhilarating experience for me,” says Lead author, Prof Abderrazak El Albani.<\/p> Using CT scanning and computer modelling, the team found that the appendages located at the edge of the mouth had curved spoon-like bases, so tiny they had gone unnoticed in less perfectly preserved fossils. Indeed, the analysis revealed that the two Moroccan species in this study showed four pairs of head appendages behind their long antennae, when previously it was thought that trilobites had just three pairs.<\/p> \u201cThe results revealed in exquisite detail a clustering of specialised leg pairs around the mouth, giving us a clearer picture of how trilobites fed,” reveals co-author Harry Berks, from the University of Bristol. “The head and body appendages were found to have an inward-facing battery of dense spines, like those of today\u2019s horseshoe crabs<\/a>.\u201d<\/p> The research team say that the one of the most important (and unexpected) outcomes of the work was the potential “bonanza for exceptional fossil preservation\u201d that could be discovered in areas where volcanic ash and shallow marine settings combined.<\/p> \u201cI think pyroclastic deposits should become new targets for study, given their exceptional potential for trapping and preserving biological remains, including delicate soft tissues. These findings are anticipated to lead to significant discoveries about the evolution of life on our planet Earth,” concludes Professor Abderrazak El Albani.<\/p> The paper,\u00a0Rapid volcanic ash entombment reveals the 3D anatomy of Cambrian trilobites,\u00a0<\/em>was published<\/a> online in the journal,\u00a0Science<\/em>.<\/p> More remarkable prehistoric discoveries:<\/strong><\/p> Scientists have discovered the most pristine trilobite fossils ever found. Perfectly preserved in ash, the ‘Pompeii trilobites’ \u2013 dug up in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco \u2013 change the scientific understanding of this long-extinct group of animals. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":39710,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-pompeii-truly-astounding-fossil-discovery-in-remote-moroccan-mountains-sheds-new-light-on-extinct-animals.jpg",2332,1542,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-pompeii-truly-astounding-fossil-discovery-in-remote-moroccan-mountains-sheds-new-light-on-extinct-animals-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-pompeii-truly-astounding-fossil-discovery-in-remote-moroccan-mountains-sheds-new-light-on-extinct-animals-300x198.jpg",300,198,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-pompeii-truly-astounding-fossil-discovery-in-remote-moroccan-mountains-sheds-new-light-on-extinct-animals-768x508.jpg",768,508,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-pompeii-truly-astounding-fossil-discovery-in-remote-moroccan-mountains-sheds-new-light-on-extinct-animals-1024x677.jpg",800,529,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-pompeii-truly-astounding-fossil-discovery-in-remote-moroccan-mountains-sheds-new-light-on-extinct-animals-1536x1016.jpg",1536,1016,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-pompeii-truly-astounding-fossil-discovery-in-remote-moroccan-mountains-sheds-new-light-on-extinct-animals-2048x1354.jpg",2048,1354,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Scientists have discovered the most pristine trilobite fossils ever found. Perfectly preserved in ash, the 'Pompeii trilobites' \u2013 dug up in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco \u2013 change the scientific understanding of this long-extinct group of animals.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/39709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Microtomographic](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/06\/Microtomographic-reconstruction-of-the-trilobite-Gigoutella-mauretanica-in-ventral-view.jpg?fit=1024,970\")
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