Chemical signatures of soft tissues distinguish between vertebrates and invertebrates from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek Lagerstätte of Illinois

The chemical composition of fossil soft tissues is a potentially powerful and yet underutilized tool for elucidating the affinity of problematic fossil organisms. In some cases, it has proven difficult to assign a problematic fossil even to the invertebrates or vertebrates (more generally chordates)...

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Published inGeobiology Vol. 18; no. 5; pp. 560 - 565
Main Authors McCoy, Victoria E., Wiemann, Jasmina, Lamsdell, James C., Whalen, Christopher D., Lidgard, Scott, Mayer, Paul, Petermann, Holger, Briggs, Derek E. G.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.09.2020
Subjects
Affinity
Biomarkers
Carboniferous
Chemical composition
Chitin
chordate
Coastal inlets
Fossils
in situ Raman spectroscopy
Invertebrates
keratin
Polysaccharides
Principal components analysis
protein fossilization products
Raman spectroscopy
Soft tissues
Tissues
Tully Monster
Vertebrates
Illinois
Mazon Creek
in situ Raman spectroscopy
keratin
protein fossilization products
Tully Monster
chordate
chitin
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Summary:The chemical composition of fossil soft tissues is a potentially powerful and yet underutilized tool for elucidating the affinity of problematic fossil organisms. In some cases, it has proven difficult to assign a problematic fossil even to the invertebrates or vertebrates (more generally chordates) based on often incompletely preserved morphology alone, and chemical composition may help to resolve such questions. Here, we use in situ Raman microspectroscopy to investigate the chemistry of a diverse array of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils from the Pennsylvanian Mazon Creek Lagerstätte of Illinois, and we generate a ChemoSpace through principal component analysis (PCA) of the in situ Raman spectra. Invertebrate soft tissues characterized by chitin (polysaccharide) fossilization products and vertebrate soft tissues characterized by protein fossilization products plot in completely separate, non‐overlapping regions of the ChemoSpace, demonstrating the utility of certain soft tissue molecular signatures as biomarkers for the original soft tissue composition of fossil organisms. The controversial problematicum Tullimonstrum, known as the Tully Monster, groups with the vertebrates, providing strong evidence of a vertebrate rather than invertebrate affinity.
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ISSN:1472-4677
1472-4669
DOI:10.1111/gbi.12397