The La Voulte-sur-Rhone Konservat-Lagerstatte reveals the male and female internal anatomy of the Middle Jurassic clawed lobster Eryma ventrosum.

ABSTRACT: The biology of extinct animals is usually reconstructed from external morphological characters and comparison with present-day analogues. Internal soft organs are very rarely preserved in fossils and require high-tech approaches for visualization. Here, we report the internal anatomy of a female and male of the ~ 162 Myr-old lobster Eryma ventrosum from the Jurassic La Voulte-sur-Rhône Konservat-Lagerstätte in France using X-ray synchrotron tomography. The Erymidae is an extinct, species-rich, widespread and ecologically important Mesozoic family of decapod crustaceans. Our investigation revealed the anatomy of the locomotory, respiratory, circulatory, excretory, digestive, nervous and sensory, and reproductive systems at a resolution resembling low-magnification histology. Particularly no

SUBMITTER: Charbonnier S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11291483 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature