Exceptional preservation of an extinct ostrich from the Late Miocene Linxia Basin of China
Received date: 2020-12-25
Online published: 2021-07-20
Here we report a new avian fossil from the Late Miocene Linxia Basin, Northwest China, with exceptional soft-tissue preservation. This specimen preserves parts of cervical vertebrae and tracheal rings that are typically ostrich-like, but cannot be diagnosed at the species level. Therefore, the fossil is referred to Struthio sp. The new specimen was preserved in association with a partial skull of Hipparion platyodus. To explore the soft tissue preservation in a fossil deposited in a terrestrial setting, we applied a combination of analytic methods to investigate the microscopic features of the fossilized avian bone. Bacterial alterations (bone bioerosion) were revealed by light microscopy and petrographic sections under SEM imaging. Soft-tissues (fossilized remnants of endogenous blood vessels and red blood cells) were preserved in one demineralized bone fragment and also observed in the in-situ ground-section. These are the first records of soft-tissue preservation in vertebrate remains from the Late Miocene Linxia Basin. Associated geological and sedimentological evidence combined with our new data provide insights into the postmortem taphonomic conditions of this ostrich specimen. A seasonal monsoon might have facilitated the microbial erosion penecontemporaneous with the burial of the specimen. This study encourages interdisciplinary research involving morphology, sedimentology, geochemistry, and histological soft-tissue analyses to better understand the Late Miocene faunal turnovers, climates, and fossil preservation in the Liushu Formation in northwestern China.
Key words： Linxia Basin; Miocene; Hipparion; Struthio; soft-tissues; blood vessels; bacteria; microscopic focal destructions
LI Zhi-Heng, Alida M. BAILLEUL, Thomas A. STIDHAM, WANG Min, DENG Tao . Exceptional preservation of an extinct ostrich from the Late Miocene Linxia Basin of China[J]. Vertebrata Palasiatica, 2021 , 59(3) : 229 -244 . DOI: 10.19615/j.cnki.1000-3118.210309
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