Journal
GEOLOGY
Volume 49, Issue 11, Pages 1381-1385Publisher
GEOLOGICAL SOC AMER, INC
DOI: 10.1130/G49193.1
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Funding
- Australian Research Council [DP200102005]
- University of New England Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
- Wetmore Colles Fund (Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology)
- Australian Research Council [DP200102005] Funding Source: Australian Research Council
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This study describes a well-preserved central nervous system in the horseshoe crab Euproops danae from the late Carboniferous Mazon Creek Konservat-Lagerstatte, demonstrating that the organization of prosomal synganglion has remained stable for over 300 million years and suggesting the potential for further preservation examples in the Mazon Creek fauna. This discovery fills a significant temporal gap in the fossil record of euarthropod CNSs and expands the taphonomic scope for preservation of detailed paleoneuroanatomical data in the Paleozoic to siderite concretion Lagerstatten of marginal marine deposits.
The central nervous system (CNS) presents unique insight into the behaviors and ecology of extant and extinct animal groups. However, neurological tissues are delicate and prone to rapid decay, and thus their occurrence as fossils is mostly confined to Cambrian Burgess Shale-type deposits and Cenozoic amber inclusions. We describe an exceptionally preserved CNS in the horseshoe crab Euproops danae from the late Carboniferous (Moscovian) Mazon Creek Konservat-Lagerstatte in Illinois, USA. The E. danae CNS demonstrates that the general prosomal synganglion organization has remained essentially unchanged in horseshoe crabs for >300 m.y., despite substantial morphological and ecological diversification in that time. Furthermore, it reveals that the euarthropod CNS can be preserved by molding in siderite and suggests that further examples may be present in the Mazon Creek fauna. This discovery fills a significant temporal gap in the fossil record of euarthropod CNSs and expands the taphonomic scope for preservation of detailed paleoneuroanatomical data in the Paleozoic to siderite concretion Lagerstatten of marginal marine deposits.
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