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Unusual intraosseous fossilized soft tissues from the Middle Triassic Nothosaurus bone

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Abstract

Fossilized soft tissues, occasionally found together with skeletal remains, provide insights to the physiology and functional morphology of extinct organisms. Herein, we present unusual fossilized structures from the cortical region of bone identified in isolated skeletal remains of Middle Triassic nothosaurs from Upper Silesia, Poland. The ribbed or annuli-shaped structures have been found in a sample of partially demineralized coracoid and are interpreted as either giant red blood cells or as blood vessel walls. The most probable function is reinforcing the blood vessels from changes of nitrogen pressure in air-breathing diving reptiles. These structures seem to have been built of extensible muscle layers which prevent the vessel damage during rapid ascent. Such suspected function presented here is parsimonious with results of previous studies, which indicate rarity of the pathological modification of bones associated with decompression syndrome in Middle Triassic nothosaurs.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Katarzyna Balin (Silesian Centre for Education and Interdisciplinary Research, Chorzów, Poland) for performing the mass spectrometry measurements and Aleksandra Pikuła (Sosnowiec, Poland) for making the three-dimensional idealized restoration of ribbed vessel. This research project is supported by National Science Center, Poland (www.ncn.gov.pl) grant no. 2011/01/N/ST10/06989.

Author contributions

DS conceived and designed the project with contribution of BMR. RP with DS prepared samples to scanning electron microscopy and mass spectra analyses. RP performed SEM images. DS with BMR wrote the paper with consultation of RP.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Park of Science & Human Evolution, 1 Maja 10, 46–040, Krasiejów, Poland

    Dawid Surmik

  2. Faculty of Earth Science, University of Silesia, Będzińska 60, 41–200, Sosnowiec, Poland

    Dawid Surmik

  3. Carnegie Museum, 4400 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Bruce M. Rothschild

  4. West Virginia University College of Medicine, Morgantown, WV, 26330, USA

    Bruce M. Rothschild

  5. Department of Histology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kopernika 7, 31-034, Kraków, Poland

    Roman Pawlicki

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  1. Dawid Surmik
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  2. Bruce M. Rothschild
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  3. Roman Pawlicki
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Correspondence to Dawid Surmik.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Surmik, D., Rothschild, B.M. & Pawlicki, R. Unusual intraosseous fossilized soft tissues from the Middle Triassic Nothosaurus bone. Sci Nat 104, 25 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-017-1451-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-017-1451-y

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