#soft tissue preservation

[mawixtys]

[ID in alt]

what if a man was also a prehistoric fish

[krindor]

Send help im experiencing childlike wonder and an academic study-bug at the same time

[soft-cheek]

Today I learned that apparently there's a travelling pokemon fossil exhibit in Japan thatll set up at local museums with like life size statues of some of the fossil pokemon and don't get me wrong I would love to see it. But fucking

Do we see this are we looking at this, apparently we're claiming that aurorus has bone sails

So immediately I had to look into it like damn maybe they are? They like move though so I looked into it and

Well now wait just one minute ok so not only are they skin, which ok I figured as much, but also the fossil you use to resurrect this bitch is an impression fossil so already I'm like wait they don't even have any DNA from this bitch (which you wouldn't from the vast majority from fossils just anyway including almost all bone fossils too but I feel like I can justify pokemon resurrection magic more when you have the bone fossil) how on earth did they manage to resurrect a whole dinosaur from an impression fossil

But back to my previous point all I'm saying is that the skeleton they've got in this showcase is the equivalent to one of these

[vickysaurus]

Stenopterygius, an ichtyosaur!

[tedkaczynskiofficial]

The dangers of a bog aren't really the things that cause them to preserve bodies so well. The danger is mostly drowning/suffocation if you fall into a sink hole, rather than the fact that the water is deoxygenated... you couldn't breathe the water even if it had oxygen. This is a bit like saying "The ocean causes giant ships to rust, imagine what it could do to you!" when the primary dangers of the ocean are drowning and exposure.

[miiilowo]

IT'S NATIONAL FOSSIL DAY IN THE US 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥 here's my favorite. it's name is Borealopelta and was found in Alberta. It's the only known one in it's species (borealopelta markmitchelli) (named after one of the people who helped prepare it) (it took him Seven Thousand Hours / 5 and a half years), and took 14 days to excavate out of its site. and yes it's in the ankylosaur clade if u thought it looked like one that's because it is

It's one of the best, if not THE best, preserved dinosaur fossils currently known . They found it's ORGANS preserved inside. It's ORGANS !!!!! It's rare for soft tissue to survive fossilization, so this has always been really really super duper cool for me and I like it a lot and it makes me very happy. I recommend looking into + at it on your own time because it's absolutely fascinating. it really just looks like an animal that went to sleep

The theory as to why it's so well preserved is that it likely died at or near the sea, sunk down to the floor and was quickly buried under the sand. Instead of being squished by layers and layers of sediment and rock, water carried in minerals and sort of made an Internal Rock Cast. They also discovered from studying the scales that it was likely an earthy reddish-orange tone . Nice for camouflage :-)

[blackbackedjackal]

Did you see the news about the thylacine head? Someone had one preserved for 100+ years and they were able to find DNA!

The soft tissue of the specimen that researchers dubbed ‘head in a bucket’ contains preserved long RNA molecules, which are crucial to reconstructing the thylacine genome. Photograph: Andrew Pask/University of Melbourne and Museums Victoria [source].

[alphynix]

The tuzoiids were an enigmatic group of Cambrian invertebrates known mostly just from their spiny bivalved carapaces. Although hundreds of fossils of these arthropods were discovered over the last century or so, only vague fragments of the rest of their bodies have been found even in sites usually known for preserving soft tissue impressions.

…Until late 2022, when several new specimens from the Canadian Burgess Shale deposits (~508 million years ago) were described showing tuzoiid anatomy in exceptional detail, finally giving us an idea of what they looked like and where they fit into the early arthropod evolutionary tree.

Tuzoiids like Tuzoia burgessensis here would have grown up to about 23cm long (~9"). They had large eyes on short stalks, a pair of simple antennae, a horizontal fluke-like tail fan, and twelve pairs of appendages along their body – with the front two pairs at the head end being significantly spinier, and most (or all) of these limbs also bearing paddle-like exopods.

The large carapace enclosed most of the body, and was ornamented with protective spines and a net-like surface pattern that probably increased the strength of the relatively thin chitinous structure.

Together all these anatomical features now indicate that tuzoiids were early mandibulates (part of the lineage including modern myriapods, crustaceans, and insects), and were probably very closely related to the hymenocarines.

Tuzoiids seem to have been active swimmers that probably cruised around just above the seafloor, with their stout legs suggesting they could also walk around if they flexed their valves open. The arrangement of their spiny front limbs wasn't suited to grabbing at fast-swimming prey, but instead may have been used to capture slower seafloor animals or to scavenge from carcasses.

———

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[blueiscoool]

A Mummified 44,000-Year-Old Wolf Found in Siberian Permafrost

Scientists perform necropsy on an ancient wolf pulled from Russian permafrost that may still have prey in its stomach.

In a first-of-its-kind discovery, a complete mummified wolf was pulled from the permafrost in Siberia, after being locked away for more than 44,000 years. Scientists have now completed a necropsy (an animal autopsy) on the ancient predator, which was discovered by a river in the Republic of Sakha — also known as Yakutia — in 2021.

This is the first complete adult wolf dating to the late Pleistocene (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) ever discovered, according to a translated statement from the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, where the necropsy was performed. The discovery, scientists say, will help us better understand life in the region during the last ice age.

Photos from the necropsy show the wolf's mummified body in exquisite detail. Animals are preserved in permafrost through a type of mummification involving cold and dry conditions. Soft tissues are dehydrated, allowing the body to be preserved in a frozen time capsule.

Researchers took samples of the wolf's internal organs and gastrointestinal tract to detect ancient viruses and microbiota, and to understand its diet when it died.

"His stomach has been preserved in an isolated form, there are no contaminants, so the task is not trivial," Albert Protopopov, head of the department for the study of mammoth fauna of the Academy of Sciences of Yakutia, said in the statement. "We hope to obtain a snapshot of the biota of the ancient Pleistocene."

He added the wolf, which tooth analysis revealed was male, would've been an "active and large predator," so they will be able to find out what it was eating, along with the diet of its victims, which "also ended up in his stomach."

Another key aspect of the necropsy is looking at the ancient viruses the wolf may have harbored. "We see that in the finds of fossil animals, living bacteria can survive for thousands of years, which are a kind of witnesses of those ancient times," Artemy Goncharov, who studies ancient viruses at the North-Western State Medical University in Russia, and is part of the team analyzing the wolf, said in the statement.

He said the research project will aid their understanding of ancient microbial communities and the role of harmful bacteria during this period. "It is possible that microorganisms will be discovered that can be used in medicine and biotechnology as promising producers of biologically active substances," he added.

The wolf necropsy is part of an ongoing project to study the wildlife that lived in the region during the Pleistocene. Other species examined include ancient hares, horses and a bear from the Holocene. The team plans to study the wolf's genome to understand how it relates to other ancient wolves from the region, and how it compares to its living relatives. The team now plans to start studying another ancient wolf discovered in the Nizhnekolymsk region of northeast Siberia in 2023.

By Hannah Osborne.

[mindblowingscience]

Most animals and plants never fossilize. For those that do, it's usually only hard parts such as bones and shells that preserve. However, in some exceptional cases, soft tissues such as muscles and gills survive the fossilization process and can present a wealth of information about the biology and ecology of ancient organisms. In a paper recently published in Palaeontologia Electronica, Dr. Adiel Klompmaker, University of Alabama Museums' curator of paleontology, and colleagues reported on a remarkable crab with multiple mineralized soft tissues preserved. This crab lived 75 million years ago during the Cretaceous in the area of present-day South Dakota in an ancient sea known as the Western Interior Seaway.

Continue Reading.

[cleverbunnycompany]

An amazing Ankylosaur; Borealopelta is probably among the best preserved dinosaur fossils, including skin impressions, stomach contents and soft tissue!

Studies have also shown it to have traces of reddish-brown pigments on its heavily armoured back!

[mineralsrocksandfossiltalks]

Monday Musings: Why are there so many perfectly preserved soft-bodied animals found in the Cambrian?

There are a number of ways to get the perfect preservations needed to fossilize soft parts but none of them are particularly common. On the other hand, most of them require water and there was quite a lot of it 518 million years ago.

Phosphatization occurs when large quantities of phosphate are present, either in sea water or from the tissues of a decaying organism. In some cases, microbes that fed on the tissue control the phosphatization. Many soft tissues are preserved this way in the Burgess Shale. The phosphate comes from the tissue itself and when pH is low and oxygen is absent, it becomes the primary method of fossilization.

Silicification is one of the most common ways to fossilize something because silicates is the most common rock forming minerals in the crust. Silica often replaces other minerals that have dissolved out such as calcite shells. This is usually seen to preserve things like trilobites. It doesn't often fossilize soft tissue.

Another form of preservation found at least in the Burgess Shale is carbonaceous film. This occurs when something is buried under several layers of sediment and diagenetically altered (in this case by heat and pressure brought on by compaction) and the animal lacks a hard skeleton or shell.

When we look at quarry locations on a paleo map,

and examine the rocks, we see that they lived and died in the right place at the right time (if the taphonomic and preservation bias don't lead us astray).

The Burgess Shale beds were deposited at the base of a cliff of calcareous reefs below the depth agitated by waves during storms. The most widely accepted hypothesis for burial is that part if the reef became detached, slumped and transported rock and debris several kilometers and quickly burying anything in its path.

On the other hand, the Maotianshan Shale was probably buried periodically under turbidity currents, basically an underwater mass wasting event. This is why we don't build our homes on old landslide deposits kids.

The Sirius Passet lagerstatte of Greenland was yet a different environment close to the boundary of an oxygen minimum zone according to geochemical analysis. It is thought that the original preservation was phosphatization that was later altered to silica by low grade metamorphism during the Devonian Period mountain-building events.

Finally, we have the Sinsk Biota of Siberia which inhabited an open marine basin where storms created back currents that sent many animals off into the oxygen depleted depths below. Anoxic conditions prevent growth of microbes that would normally decay flesh allowing soft tissues to preserve.

Now, it is also important to note that oftentimes, parts labeled soft tissue are not necessarily as soft as you believe. Take keratin for example which makes up nails, hair, feathers and sheaths over horns. It's not really that soft in some cases but it is softer than bone which makes it harder to preserve.

Whether we mean keratin or chitin (a natural polymer used to strengthen fungi and invertebrates) or internal organs which really are soft tissues, the Cambrian lagerstatten really are something else.

[ashmouthbooks]

Læg nu smukt din hånd i min by katekane

A6 quarto hardback with homemade bookcloth - first time making it myself! and the title stamped on the front cover with fabric paint. I have never watched a single Far til fire film (not even the modern remakes) but when I stumbled across this on ao3 I couldn’t pass it by. this fic touches on Danish queer history with such heart and warmth and wonderful characters (I should probably watch the films) that it became an instant favourite.

for ikke at tale om at når man har tilbragt tyve plus år i fandom på engelsk og med engelske canons så er det at læse fic på dansk, der har udgangspunkt i dansk kultur og historie, som regn for sjælens ødemarker.

craft talk under the cut.

this is my first time making bookcloth so I want about it the cheapest possible way - fabric square from Søstrene Grene’s craft section backed with tissue paper which was a) the only paper I had that was big enough for the fabric square and b) salvaged from a past gifty delivery. it went ok but after drying some of the tissue separated from the fabric. hashtag yolo etc. I decided to use it anyway, and I think the moisture in the PVA was just enough to reactivate the paste on the paper backing, because the finished case came out beautifully smooth - and soft. I opted not to infill the cloth so it’s open weave cotton and feels as soft as a pillow to the touch.

the endpapers are also from Søstrene Grene, decorative paper 120gsm. The textblock is printed on 90gsm Munken Lynx Smooth Natural White, I wanted a whiter paper than usual as the chapter end notes have colour photos that I wanted to preserve. headbands are sewn on, the core is leather cord and the thread is embroidery thread.

the title is stamped on using rubber stamps from, you guessed it - Søstrene Grene. (they actually have letter stamps with the Scandinavian alphabet characters but the London store only has that particular set in all caps and the lower case set only had the English alphabet. luckily an æ is easily improvised and I have both a steady hand and a fine tip paintbrush for the circle over the å.) the paint is shimmery metallic fabric paint from Lumiere.

[strongafmummytourney]

ROUND 1

CONTENDER 1: BEECHEY ISLAND MUMMIES

Also known as: Franklin Expedition Mummies, John Shaw Torrington, John Hartnell, William Braine Age(s): 19-20 (Torrington), 25 (Hartnell), 32 (Braine) Location: Beechey Island/Iluvialuit, Nunavut, Canada Means of Mummification: Burial in permafrost Notable features: Preserved soft tissues and cartilage including eyes, nose, lips, and internal organs. Hair preserved with color intact. Clothes preserved.

CONTENDER 2: GEORGE HERBERT LEIGH-MALLORY

Age: 37 Location: Mount Everest's North Face, Tibet Means of Mummification: Subzero mountain temperatures and dry air Notable features: Known for his incredible posterior in life and in death. Some climbing gear intact.

[literaila]

winter blues 

tasm!peter x reader 

summary: 

"why are you here?"

"why are you ignoring my calls?"

warnings: seasonal depression (unmentioned but that’s what it is), comfort, avoidance, fluff, peter is nice (mostly) 

a/n: this is so random and so terrible but my computer doesn’t deserve to have this banished away. happy winter!!!! 

*

if you're in a mood--which you're not--then it is perfectly rational. 

and if you've been hanging up the phone, slamming doors, and throwing random objects around your room for the past couple of days--all done as some sort of ritual, of course, a method of which to maintain control--then it's fine. 

your room is a mess and there are more worthwhile, productive things to be done. 

which is probably why you aren't speaking to anyone. 

or, rather, effectively ignoring anyone who even attempts to get a word out toward you. 

when someone knocks on the door you duck under the covers, sure that your presence can't be detected with an extra layer of cotton protecting your body heat. 

when someone texts you, you simply pretend that your phone has died--despite the fifty apps you've got open and the lonely google tab, awaiting curiosity that escaped you weeks ago. 

when you go outside it's with your eyes tilted toward the ground, staring at cement like it's a newfound fascination. 

so, maybe you've fallen victim to the winter blues. maybe you've been consistently listening to one playlist entitled "don't listen to this, you loser," and not really listening at all. 

maybe you've been avoiding this actualization--being that you'd prefer to live in your own disgust rather than face it, thank you very much. 

and maybe, as you consider these missteps, you've got your face smothered into a pillow. 

you do not consider how long it might take you to fall asleep. 

*

there's a knock on your door. 

it is sullen and soft and all too loud for this time of day. four in the afternoon is made for napping, and you have made yourself into someone who no longer answers the door. 

you roll over on the couch, waiting for evading footsteps. 

you are met with only kind silence. 

and then a voice: 

"i know you're in there," he says. "and i know that you can hear me." 

peter knows nothing. 

you have made a point of that. 

you throw your head back, imitating a groan, and wonder how many minutes you'll have to sit through this before he gives up. 

you ridicule yourself as soon as the thought comes; when has peter ever given up on anything? 

"i'm not leaving," he echoes. "i'll knock on mrs. garrison's door and ask for a folding chair." 

you have been avoiding him for the past week. you have been thinking that if he sees you--even just once--he’ll know that something is wrong. that he’ll ask and you’ll have to tell. that he’ll bring up the one thing you’re trying to avoid. 

two things, you guess. 

and because you are sure that peter will make good on his threat, and also because you feel a pin-prick of guilt, you get up off of the couch. you curse your raggedy bones. 

try and recall when you last stood and how long you'll be able to stay standing. 

you go to the door, opening it with a glare. 

"peter," you say, dryly. your voice is rotted with its misuse. 

he simply smiles. "can i come in?" 

"why are you here?" 

"why are you ignoring my calls?" peter challenges, ducking under your arm to walk into your apartment without invitation. 

you try not to wince at everything he might stumble upon. 

like candy wrappers and water bottles and papers that you've crumbled until they're illegible, and others that you've folded into paper airplanes. 

socks and sweaters you've thrown around. a blanket that has served as both a preserver of heat and a tissue. 

dishes everywhere because, coincidently, you've recently forgotten how to use your dishwasher. 

"woah," peter blows out a breath. he turns back to you with raised eyebrows, smile somewhat fallen. 

you frown even deeper and cross your arms. "i'm not ignoring your calls. my phone died." 

peter stares at you. he leans over to grab your phone off of the couch--you'd forgotten it was there--and presses the power button. 

you both watch as it comes to life. it scolds you with notifications. 

"my ringer is off." 

peter just sighs and tosses it back in its forever place. "what's going on?" he asks, softer now, like his knock. 

you stare at his face and wonder again why he's here. why you even bothered answering the door. 

and then his brown lulls you into the earth, where you have no inhibitors. 

you rub a hand over your eyes. "it's just been a long week," you say because at least it's not a lie. 

"did something happen?" 

you shake your head. 

"are you feeling alright?" 

you nod. 

when you look up peter is closer. he is offering you something kind with his face. 

you want to wipe it off and slam the door in his face. 

"hey," he says, whispering to only you. "i missed you. i wanted to make sure you were okay." 

"well, thanks for checking in," you reply, grabbing his arm so you can pull him toward the door. 

peter laughs. "not so fast." he stops both of you with a foot on the floor. 

you scowl at him. 

"it's been a week since i've seen you," peter chides, like you're a child who's forgotten. "i'd like to have an actual conversation." 

you shake his hand off of you. "we're having a conversation." 

"you haven't even asked me about my week." 

you sigh. "okay." you pause for a moment, waiting for him to break. "how was your week, peter?" 

"long," he answers, quickly. "thanks for asking." 

you let a chuckle fall from dry lips. 

he takes another step closer. 

you're used to peter's hands on you--because they almost always are, especially when it's this cold outside and he likes to use you as an excuse--but it feels like more than just touching now. 

when he tilts your chin up with his hands, observing your eyes, you swear that he's actually probing you. 

that if he's the scientist, you are the lab rat being subdued to whatever experiment he's working on. 

"you look tired," he whispers, fingers tracing over sinkhole under eyes. 

"i am." 

peter bites his lip, eyes searching. "are you having trouble sleeping?" 

you can barely shake your head in his hands, but you attempt to anyway. 

peter swallows. "are you sick?" 

"no, peter. i'm okay."

he tilts his head. "you're tired. when was the last time you ate?" he asks. "or took a shower?" 

"i ate this morning." 

peter stares at you. he pokes your side with his iris'. 

"...i think." 

"baby," peter throws his head back. he plays it off as teasing, but you know that he's serious. "you can't just--" 

"i've been sleeping all day," you excuse. "i was gonna eat right before you came over." 

peter gives you another blank stare. 

you sigh at him, refusing to lie any further. 

at least he's fun to look at, you think. at least you're not completely irritated with him. 

"can i make you something instead?" peter asks, playing along. "you can go lay down and i'll bring it to you." 

your brows furrow. "you didn't come over to take care of me." 

"i did, actually. and to make sure that aliens hadn't gotten to you." 

"it's okay. you should tell me about your week," you attempt to put on a smile. "i'll listen real hard." 

"i will," peter promises. "but i want to make sure that you're okay first. you look..." peter shrugs. 

"terrible?" 

he laughs, just a little. brushes some hair from your eyes. "beautiful, obviously. just sad." 

your eyes close involuntarily. something in your chest comes back to life, unwanted and unwarranted. 

you should be able to handle peter saying nice things without wanting to cry. 

and you should be answering your phone and the door without any sort of hesitation. 

peter shakes his head like he can tell what you're thinking. "don't think so hard," he says. "what do you have in the fridge?" 

he gives you another smile. one that is so desperate and pleasing that you almost flinch. 

peter has molded under your darkened fingertips. 

he is shifting, just for you. and despite whatever denial you might feel, you're aware that you've been keeping him at a distance to avoid just that. 

he grabs your hand, pulling you toward the kitchen. he knows his way around. "let's go look. but you have to have more than a carton of ice cream because last time--" 

"peter," you whisper, pulling his hand back. 

he pauses. looks down at you. "hmm?" 

"will you--" you swallow. let the guilt fill your mouth. "will you--can you hug me? for just a little bit? i don't, um, i don't--" 

peter is quick to stop you. 

to wrap his strong arms around your back, cradling your head right against his shoulder. he lets you nuzzle into his neck, lets you grab onto his shoulders, and play with the hair on the base of his neck. 

he wraps you in comfort and warmth. 

like a present, he's wrapped you with care. he tells you that you can open it and look whenever you're ready. he whispers little things in your ear, about the things you've missed. 

he's gifted you this much. 

he loves you, he promises. 

and if you'll open the door for anyone, it's peter. 

*

my masterlist here.

tags:@moonlarking-blog @v1ci0us @preciousbabypeter @alexxavicry @directioner5life @inthegetawaycarwithtaylah @localrockstargf  @thestudiouswanderer @take-my-hand-time-boy @thoughtsofagodlovingsunflower @nyomjoon  @moo-b1tch @raindropstearsandtea @rqmanoff @hollandweather @wetcoldnoodle @urlocalavenderhazestan @valvlry @imthatcoolmom

[3liza]

vintage nudes are so interesting because they preserve body types that used to be really common but dont seem to be around much anymore. i think of this bodytype as the one most common in 1960s-70s fantasy book covers and pulp novels. barbarella has this kind of torso, for example. but you rarely see it show up past the 1990s. i dont see it IRL much either. part of it i think is that the image of "sexy girl" like you see on pulp novel covers and in ads etc has gotten progressively younger since the american midcentury. this is more of a grownup bodytype, this is a more usual shape for skinny women in their 30s and 40s with muscle maturity and a few more years of hormone-mediated development and possibly a pregnancy or two. i think differences in posture (particularly the practice of sucking in the abdominal muscles in a really conspicuous way, which was the norm from about 1940 to 1970 for both men and women), the culture around correcting posture virtually disappearing in the 80s, and differences in daily activities activating different muscle groups, as well as difference in where we are putting shaping pressure on our soft tissues with different clothing and materials, has contributed to these changes. i would love to write a paper about this. i've gotten so intense about this topic i can date nudes to roughly their correct decades just based on the model's body shape.