| 1. |
- Lindgren, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Soft-tissue evidence for homeothermy and crypsis in a Jurassic ichthyosaur
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 564:7736, s. 359-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ichthyosaurs are extinct marine reptiles that display a notable external similarity to modern toothed whales. Here we show that this resemblance is more than skin deep. We apply a multidisciplinary experimental approach to characterize the cellular and molecular composition of integumental tissues in an exceptionally preserved specimen of the Early Jurassic ichthyosaur Stenopterygius. Our analyses recovered still-flexible remnants of the original scaleless skin, which comprises morphologically distinct epidermal and dermal layers. These are underlain by insulating blubber that would have augmented streamlining, buoyancy and homeothermy. Additionally, we identify endogenous proteinaceous and lipid constituents, together with keratinocytes and branched melanophores that contain eumelanin pigment. Distributional variation of melanophores across the body suggests countershading, possibly enhanced by physiological adjustments of colour to enable photoprotection, concealment and/or thermoregulation. Convergence of ichthyosaurs with extant marine amniotes thus extends to the ultrastructural and molecular levels, reflecting the omnipresent constraints of their shared adaptation to pelagic life.
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| 2. |
- Babcock, Loren, et al.
(författare)
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Global climate, sea level cycles, and biotic events in the Cambrian Period
- 2015
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Ingår i: Palaeoworld. - : Elsevier BV. - 1875-5887 .- 1871-174X. ; 24:1-2, s. 5-15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The developing high-resolution chronostratigraphy of the Cambrian provides an updated age model for various geologic and biotic events that occurred during this critical period of Earth history. Broad, time-specific patterns of lithofacies, such as organic-rich deposits, and biofacies appear to be consistent across all Cambrian paleocontinents. Records of important evolutionary events including first appearances of certain metazoan taxa, migrations, and extinctions, tend to coincide with changes in eustatic sea level, as do the positions of many Konservat-Lagerstatten, concretion horizons, agnostoid-rich beds, and other sedimentary features. Most of these events or horizons also show a relationship to perturbations in the global carbon cycle. The positions of organic-rich deposits bear strong relationship to both paleogeographic position and sea level history. Cambrian strata show evidence of cyclicity at multiple scales. Synchronous or near-synchronous global cyclicity is inferred to be associated with oceanographic and climatic cycles characteristic of glacial expansion and deglaciation. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS.
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| 3. |
- Lindgren, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Fossil insect eyes shed light on trilobite optics and the arthropod pigment screen
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 573:7772, s. 122-125
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fossilized eyes permit inferences of the visual capacity of extinct arthropods1–3. However, structural and/or chemical modifications as a result of taphonomic and diagenetic processes can alter the original features, thereby necessitating comparisons with modern species. Here we report the detailed molecular composition and microanatomy of the eyes of 54-million-year-old crane-flies, which together provide a proxy for the interpretation of optical systems in some other ancient arthropods. These well-preserved visual organs comprise calcified corneal lenses that are separated by intervening spaces containing eumelanin pigment. We also show that eumelanin is present in the facet walls of living crane-flies, in which it forms the outermost ommatidial pigment shield in compound eyes incorporating a chitinous cornea. To our knowledge, this is the first record of melanic screening pigments in arthropods, and reveals a fossilization mode in insect eyes that involves a decay-resistant biochrome coupled with early diagenetic mineralization of the ommatidial lenses. The demonstrable secondary calcification of lens cuticle that was initially chitinous has implications for the proposed calcitic corneas of trilobites, which we posit are artefacts of preservation rather than a product of in vivo biomineralization4–7. Although trilobite eyes might have been partly mineralized for mechanical strength, a (more likely) organic composition would have enhanced function via gradient-index optics and increased control of lens shape.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Ahlberg, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Cambrian stratigraphy of the Tomten-1 drill core, Västergötland, Sweden
- 2016
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Ingår i: GFF. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1103-5897 .- 2000-0863. ; 138:4, s. 490-501
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Tomten-1 drilling at Torbjörntorp in Västergötland, southern Sweden, penetrated 29.85 m of Cambrian Series 2, Cambrian Series 3, Furongian, and Lower–Middle Ordovician strata. Lithostratigraphically, the succession includes the File Haidar, Borgholm and Alum Shale formations, and the Latorp and Lanna limestones. The drill core succession is described herein for the first time, with special focus on the biostratigraphy of the Cambrian Alum Shale Formation. In the Cambrian Series 3, through Furongian Alum Shale Formation, agnostoids and trilobites have been identified to species level and the succession is subdivided into nine biozones (in ascending order): the Ptychagnostus gibbus, Ptychagnostus atavus, Lejopyge laevigata, Agnostus pisiformis, Olenus gibbosus, Parabolina spinulosa, Ctenopyge tumida, Ctenopyge bisulcata and Ctenopyge linnarssoni zones. The succession is interrupted by numerous stratigraphic gaps of variable magnitudes, as is evident from the biostratigraphy and conspicuous unconformities.
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| 6. |
- Ahlberg, Per E., et al.
(författare)
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Palaeontology: A firm step from water to land
- 2006
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 440:7085, s. 747-749
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Ahlberg, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Faunal turnovers and trilobite morphologies in the upper Cambrian Leptoplastus Zone at Andrarum, southern Sweden
- 2006
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Ingår i: Lethaia. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 0024-1164. ; 39:2, s. 97-110
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Furongian (upper Cambrian) Leptoplastus Zone marks a time of critical changes in the evolution of olenid trilobites. This zone, unexposed at Andrarum in Skane, southern Sweden, has been re-excavated and the sequence of faunas and sediments logged in detail. The faunal succession accords with that previously described from borehole cores by Westergard, and the subzones of L. paucisegmentatus, L. raphidophorus, L. crassicornis, L. ovatus, L. angustatus, and L. stenotus have been recognized. In the first two subzones the olenid assemblages are monospecific. At the base of the L. crassicornis Subzone more than one species is present and morphotypes with long genal spines appear for the first time. Faunal turnover is rapid, but the incoming of new species is invariably linked to an abrupt change in sedimentation, or follows an unfossiliferous interval; species either arose or migrated in after a time of environmental perturbation. Particular faunal associations are often confined to discrete sedimentary packages though some species may range through a succession of sedimentary changes. Leptoplastus crassicornis has very long genal spines, adapted for resting on the sea floor; it may have competed with the coeval, and very similar, L. angustatus. Subsequently, L. angustatus is accompanied by the stout-bodied, short-spined L. ovatus, which presumably occupied a different niche within the same environment. Leptoplastus stenotus is convergent on the much earlier L. paucisegmentatus, and likewise is found as a monospecific assemblage, presumably being adapted to a similar niche.
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