An exceptionally preserved vermiform mollusc from the Silurian of England

Mark D. Sutton, Derek E. G. Briggs, David J. Siveter and Derek J. Siveter ()
Additional contact information
Mark D. Sutton: University of Oxford
Derek E. G. Briggs: Wills Memorial Building
David J. Siveter: Bennett Building, University of Leicester
Derek J. Siveter: University of Oxford

Nature, 2001, vol. 410, issue 6827, 461-463

Abstract: Abstract Studies of the origin and radiation of the molluscs have yet to resolve many issues regarding their nearest relatives, phylogeny and ancestral characters1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. The Polyplacophora (chitons) and the Aplacophora are widely interpreted as the most primitive extant molluscs2,3,9,10, but Lower Palaeozoic fossils of the former lack soft parts, and the latter were hitherto unrecognized as fossils. The Herefordshire Lagerstätte12 is a Silurian (about 425 Myr bp) deposit that preserves a marine biota in remarkable three-dimensional detail. The external surface of even non-biomineralized cuticle was preserved by entombment in volcanic ash, subsequent incorporation into concretions, and infilling of the fossils with sparry calcite13. Here we describe, from this deposit, a complete vermiform mollusc, which we interpret as a plated aplacophoran. Serial grinding at intervals of tens of micrometres, combined with computer-based reconstruction methods, renders the fossils in the round14.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35068549 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:410:y:2001:i:6827:d:10.1038_35068549

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35068549

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().