Investigating Mazon Creek fossil plants using computed tomography and microphotography

Frontiers in Earth Science

Earth Science

Selena Y. Smith¹  April I. Neander²  Fabiany Herrera³  Michael P. D’Antonio³  Yuke Zheng⁴  Philipp R. Heck⁴  Jack Wittry⁵  Carol L. Hotton⁶  Paula A. Lopera⁷  Peter R. Crane⁸ 

[1] Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States;Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, The University Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States;Earth Sciences, Negaunee Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, United States;Earth Sciences, Negaunee Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, United States;Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies, Negaunee Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, United States;Department of the Geophysical Sciences, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States;Gantz Family Collections Center, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, United States;National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States;Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, United States;Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, Panama;Yale School of Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States;Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA, United States;

关键词: Paleozoic;    Tetraphyllostrobus;    Crossotheca;    micro-computed tomography;    MeshLab;    differential interference contrast;    airyscan confocal superresolution microscopy;   

DOI  :  10.3389/feart.2023.1200976

 received in 2023-04-05, accepted in 2023-06-23,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

More than 20,000 siderite concretions from the Mazon Creek area of northern Illinois, United States are housed in the paleobotanical collections of the Field Museum. A large proportion contain fossil plants of Middle Pennsylvanian age that often have excellent three-dimensional morphology and sometimes anatomical detail. Approximately eighty plant taxa have been recognized from the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte, but few have been studied in detail, and in some cases the systematic affinities of these fossils need reevaluation. The three-dimensional (3D) preservation of Mazon Creek fossil plants makes them ideal candidates for study using x-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT), and here we apply these techniques to more accurately reconstruct the morphology of specimens of Tetraphyllostrobus Gao et Zodrow and Crossotheca Zeiller. The mineralogical composition of the fossil plant preservation was studied using elemental maps and Raman spectroscopy. In-situ spores were studied with differential interference contrast, Airyscan confocal super-resolution microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy, which reveal different features of the spores with different degrees of clarity. Our analyses show that μCT can provide excellent detail on the three-dimensional structure of Mazon Creek plant fossils, with the nature of associated mineralization sometimes enhancing and sometimes obscuring critical information. Results provide guidance for selecting and prioritizing fossil plant specimens preserved in siderite concretions for future research.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Herrera, Hotton, Smith, Lopera, Neander, Wittry, Zheng, Heck, Crane and D’Antonio.