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Phosphatized soft tissues in bivalves from the Portland Roach of Dorset (Upper Jurassic)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Philip R. Wilby  and
Martin A. Whyte
Philip R. Wilby
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Wills Memorial Building, Queen’s Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK
Martin A. Whyte
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Dainton Building, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S3 7HF, UK
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Abstract

Phosphatized soft tissues are preserved in abundance in the trigoniids (Bivalvia) Laevitrigonia gibbosa and Myophorella incurva from the Portland Roach (Upper Jurassic) of Dorset. Cellular structures are preserved and fossilization is almost exclusively the result of a dense coating of mineralized microbes. Phosphatized soft tissues are restricted entirely to those trigoniids whose valves remained tightly closed after death. Only in these specimens was sufficient phosphorus concentrated by the decay of their most ‘labile’ soft tissues to trigger the precipitation of apatite in and around microbes infesting their more ‘refractory’ soft tissues. The absence of fossilized soft tissues in the rest of the fauna implies that phosphatization was very taxon-specific.

Type
Rapid Communications
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 132 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 117 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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