Lobopod gut

The gut of lobopods is unusual in that it is straight, undifferentiated, and sometimes preserved in the fossil record in three dimensions.[1]

Preservation

In some specimens, parts of the lobopod gut can be preserved in three dimensions. The cannot result from phosphatisation, which is usually responsible for 3-D gut preservation,[2] for the phosphate content of the guts is under 1% - the contents comprise quartz and muscovite.[1]

Construction

The gut consists of a central tube which occupies the full length of the lobopod's trunk,[3] which doesn't change much in width - at least not in a systematic fashion. This may be surrounded by serially repeated[3] kidney-shaped diverticulae.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Hou, Xian-Guang; Ma, Xiao-Ya; Zhao, Jie; Bergström, Jan (2004). "The lobopodian Paucipodia inermis from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna, Yunnan, China". Lethaia 37 (3): 235. doi:10.1080/00241160410006555. 
  2. ^ Butterfield, N. J. (2002). "Leanchoilia guts and the interpretation of three-dimensional structures in Burgess Shale-type fossils". Paleobiology 28: 155–171. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2002)028<0155:LGATIO>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0094-8373.  edit
  3. ^ a b JIANNI LIU, DEGAN SHU, JIAN HAN, ZHIFEI ZHANG, and XINGLIANG ZHANG (2006). "A large xenusiid lobopod with complex appendages from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte" (PDF). Acta Palaeontol. Pol. 51 (2): 215–222. http://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app51/app51-215.pdf. Retrieved 9 February 2011. 
  4. ^ Liu, J.; Shu, D.; Han, J.; Zhang, Z.; Zhang, X. (2007). "Morpho-anatomy of the lobopod Magadictyon cf. Haikouensis from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerst�tte, South China". Acta Zoologica 88 (4): 279–288. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6395.2007.00281.x.  edit