Volcanic ash preserves a Cambrian Pompeii

[Halichoeres]

Volcanic ash buried an ancient seabed in what is now Morocco, preserving trilobites in a state never seen before. There are soft tissues in articulation with mineralized elements, giving excellent insights into their feeding morphology.

Check out these scans of Protolenus (A, C, D) and Gigoutella (B, E, F):


Paper (paywall): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl4540

NYT article (also paywall, sorry): https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/science/trilobites-fossils-volcanic-ash-pompeii.html

[Faelrin]

Wow that's insane. Are those mouth-parts and gills? The closest to this that I recall seeing is those gold Triarthrus fossils that sometimes preserve antennae, legs, and even eggs in some instances. Goldbugs on instagram has shared lots of amazing examples like this, but even those probably pale in comparison to these.

Also what are those little blue mushroom things on the one image supposed to indicate?

The supplementary material has a good load of images, but are those the same ones in the paper?

[Halichoeres]

Yup, mouthparts and gills! And those little blue mushroom things are tiny brachiopods living attached to the trilobites!

If anybody wants a pdf of this, pm me and I'll send it along.