11/6/2022 0 Comments Ammonite fossils![]() ![]() They looked at the fossil's remaining soft tissues and scarring where muscles once attached to the inside of its shell.īy combining high-resolution X-ray and high-contrast neutron imaging, they created a detailed 3D computer reconstruction of the structure, size and orientation of its muscles and organs. To carry out the study, the researchers studied the five-centimetres-across ammonite fossil which was found within an exposed Jurassic sediment at a Gloucestershire site in 1998. Thus, ammonite fossils with preserved muscles and organs are extremely rare. ![]() They are among the most common fossils worldwide, but almost everything we know about them so far is based on their hard shells as these are more easily preserved over millennia than bodily tissues. This is a major breakthrough in ammonite palaeobiology."Īmmonites, which became extinct around 66 million years ago, once thrived in oceans as dinosaurs ruled the Earth. New imaging techniques allowed us to visualise the internal soft parts of ammonites that have so far resisted all our previous efforts to describe them. Study co-author Dr Alan Spencer, from Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering and the Natural History Museum, said: "This ammonite is remarkably well preserved, which is very rare. The findings add insight into how ammonites lived and provide evidence that coleoids, the sub-group of animals containing squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish, might be evolutionarily closer to ammonites than previously thought. The research, published today in Geology, marks the first time an ammonite's softer parts have been visualised in three dimensions - and is thanks to a combination of modern technology, the fossil's exceptional preservation, and collaboration across interdisciplinary teams and facilities. ![]() The team, including researchers from Cardiff University and Imperial College London, found this by analysing the muscles and organs of an exceptionally well-preserved ammonite fossil found over 20 years ago in Gloucestershire, UK. ![]()
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