The Jogo Formation has given us the world's earliest fossils, from the origins of the genus to the oldest vertebrate core, and is now one of the world's most important fossil sites. It is time to seriously consider the site as a world heritage home.
For the first time ever, an international team of researchers has found a 3-D-preserved complete heart fossil of an ancient jawed fish that lived 380 million years ago, as well as a separate and fully preserved stomach, intestines and liver. The fossil was found in an area known as "The Gogo Formation" Formation) in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, which is originally a large coral reef.
The new research , published in the journal "Science" on September 15, explains that the position of organs in the body of arthropods (an extinct class of armored fish that flourished during the Devonian period from 419.2 million years to 358.9 million years ago) is anatomically similar to a fish. Talking shark.
Study lead author Kate Triangstick, of Curtin's School of Molecular and Life Sciences and the Western Australian Museum, said in the press release - published on the Eurek Alert website - that The discovery was remarkable, given that the soft tissues of ancient species are rarely preserved, and three-dimensional preservation was rare.
"As a paleontologist who has studied fossils for more than 20 years, I was truly amazed to find a beautifully preserved 3D heart in a 380 million-year-old ancestor," Triangstick said in the statement. "Evolution is often viewed as a series of small steps, but these fossils The ancients indicate a great leap between jawless and jawless vertebrates. These fish literally have their hearts in their mouths and under their gills just like sharks today."
The statement also mentions that this research presents - for the first time - a three-dimensional model of a complex heart in the shape of the letter "S" (S) consisting of two chambers with a small chamber located at the top. In such early vertebrates, Triangistic says, these provide a unique window into how the head and neck region changed to accommodate jaws, a crucial stage in our bodies' evolution. "For the first time, we could see all the organs together in a rudimentary fish, and we were particularly surprised to learn that they (the organs) were not completely different from what we have."
Distinguished fossil in the most important excavation site
“However, there was one fundamental difference, the liver was large enough for the fish to stay afloat, just like today’s sharks,” Triangstick says. “Some bony fish today, such as lungfish and birch fish, have lungs that evolved from their swim bladders, but it was important We found no evidence of lungs in any of the extinct armored fish we examined, suggesting that they evolved independently in bony fish at a later date."
Aided by scientists at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization in Sydney and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France, the researchers used beams of neutrons and synchrotron rays - electromagnetic radiation that arises when charged particles are accelerated (or accelerated) to near-light speeds under the influence of an intense magnetic field. To survey samples, which are still buried in limestone deposits, and build 3D images of the soft tissues within them based on the different densities of minerals deposited by bacteria and the surrounding rock matrix.
Curtin University professor Kate Triangstick examines the fossils at the Washington Museum
The researchers also explain in the statement that this new discovery of mineralized organs - biomineralization is a process in which living organisms produce minerals and aims to harden and harden existing tissues - in addition to previous discoveries of muscles and embryos, makes the fossils of jojo arthropods the most understood of all jawed stem vertebrates, and explains the evolutionary transition extending to vertebrates. Live jaws.
Co-author Professor John Long of Flinders University said in the statement, "These new discoveries of soft organs in these ancient fish are truly dream material for paleontologists, as these fossils are undoubtedly the best preserved in the world for this age. The value of jojo fossils," he said, adding, "The jugo formation has given us the world's first fossils, from the origins of the genus to the oldest vertebrate core, and is now one of the most important fossil sites in the world. It is time to seriously consider the site as a World Heritage Site."
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