Age is just a number: Examining the preservation of cells and soft tissues in Bothriolepis and other Devonian fish.

ABSTRACT: Recent microscopy and proteomic studies demonstrate fossil bones can preserve remarkable palimpsests of cellular and soft tissue evolution, yet it remains unclear if there are temporal limits to such preservation. For instance, it remains unknown if fossil cells and soft tissues can be recovered from fossil bones of the earliest vertebrates from the middle Paleozoic. To test this, we demineralized nine bone fragments of Bothriolepis and other Late Devonian fish. Removal of phosphates from the fossils released numerous microstructures morphologically consistent with vertebrate osteocytes, pieces of blood vessels, and sheets of fibrous bone matrix which were frequently found to exhibit elemental chemistry potentially indicative of partial organic composition. These discoveries extend this st

SUBMITTER: Rogoff CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12674576 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature