More Lebanese soft bodies

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Mar 7, 2009
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Two to start with: one a 6 cm coleoid in lateral view (not sure which this is); the second a complete 17 cm Dorateuthis syriaca (Prototeuthidina according to Fuchs here).
 

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Hi Ob. I think the dendrites are just the usual - post-depositional pyrolusite (manganese dioxide). There's a baby skate in the top right hand corner with pyrolusite dendrites in the position of its eyes.

Here attached is a sketch showing the position of the ink sac (I want to write "sack", but I see this written "sac" even in English texts).
 

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A few more pictures (now that I'm back from "the most important of all the unimportant things in the world", i.e. football). Here you go cuttlegirl, a close-up of the tail end of the gladius in the laterally-preserved animal. The white layer at the top is made of francolite (carbonate fluorapatite) - it fluoresces spectacularly under UV light.
 

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Hajar;165848 said:
Hi Ob. I think the dendrites are just the usual - post-depositional pyrolusite (manganese dioxide).

OK, that explains the dendrites dorsally, I had trouble making sense of it otherwise :wink: I take it the ink has a tendency to solidify post mortem, for such a three dimensional shape to remain, even following fossilization?
 
Thanks Hajar. That is so cool, cuttlebones today have a top layer (that corresponds to the francolite layer) and then the chambers are laid down laterally and ventrally from the top layer.

I found a google book that has nice drawings of the anatomy of some cephalopods. Starts on page 559. It's an old book (1861), but with incredibly detailed illustrations. It doesn't concentrate on cuttlefish as much as I would like, but has some octopus anatomy and Nautilus anatomy.

The General Structure of the Animal Kingdom

Also, this book starting on page 517.

The Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology
 
Also, how do you differentiate between the ink sac and not the stomach? In other words, how did you determine that it was the ink sac and not the stomach? The ink sac is connected to the stomach, but ventral to the stomach. See figure 221 on page 535 of the second book.
 
Thanks for the links cuttlegirl.

Yes, the ink sacs are preserved in 3D and still contain ink (which falls out leaving the external mould), whereas the stomachs are preserved flattened, as in this Dorateuthis.

The francolite in this specimen is an early precipitate recording the soft parts of the mantle rather than part of the gladius.

Incidentally I just went out to buy a crinoid for the aquarium, but since there was a cuttlefish I brought that home too. Fascinating to observe.
 

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