COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Soft Tissue and Membrane Preservation in Permian Cephalopods

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We plan to investigate the internal features of cephalopod molluscs from Permian deposits in North America. In particular, we are studying the remains of soft tissues of siphuncular cords and membranes that have been preserved by early diagenetic phosphate mineralization in Permian cephalopods from Buck Mountain, Nevada. This research represents a follow-up study of our initial discovery of preserved membranes in three ammonoid specimens from this locality. We plan to expand this discovery with our primary objective the examination of the Buck Mountain cephalopod fauna for preserved membranes and soft tissues. This fauna includes prolecanitids, goniatitids, and nautiloids and is housed in Ohio University and Boise State University. We will prepare these cephalopods using acidification techniques and then examine the specimens with scanning electron microscopy. The study of the remains of soft tissues and membranes in Paleozoic cephalopods has previously been an unobtainable research goal. We pose two hypotheses: 1) the structures in these cephalopods are, indeed, soft tissue remains, now phosphatized, that preserve the details of their original microanatomy and 2) that these structures are homologous with those of modern cephalopods and reveal information about phylogeny and functional morphology. This study will lead to a better understanding of how these ancient and extinct animals lived and functioned in their environment. In this way, these discoveries will contribute to our fundamental knowledge of the paleobiology of fossil cephalopods.