![]() ![]() This specimen and a second specimen from Nusplingen are stored at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart (SMNS-numbers). The main specimen, which was discovered by HP, comprises jaws and soft parts of an ammonite from the Tithonian of Wintershof. The studied specimens come from the two localities Nusplingen (late Kimmeridgian see Dietl and Schweigert 2001 for locality information) and Wintershof (early Tithonian see Arratia et al. Here, we will first describe these remains, secondly attempt a homologization of the single parts, and thirdly discuss the taphonomic history. Remarkably, the ammonite remains portrayed in this study are buried outside their conchs. In the region of Wintershof, these limestones were laid down during the early Tithonian (Hybonotum Zone, Riedense Subzone, eigeltingense β Biohorizon), while the limestones of Nusplingen are a little bit older and of late Kimmeridgian age (Beckeri Zone, Ulmense Subzone) (Schweigert 1998, 2007). Both localities are known for their Late Jurassic platy limestones, which yield sometimes exceptionally preserved cephalopod fossils (Schweigert and Dietl 1999 Dietl and Schweigert 2001 Klug et al. Here, we describe ammonite remains from Late Jurassic conservation deposits of Nusplingen and Wintershof (southern Germany), which are only rarely preserved otherwise. 2019), as well as the Late Cretaceous of Lebanon (Wippich and Lehmann 2004) and of Germany (Klug et al. 1984) and Great Britain (Lehmann and Weitschat 1973), the Middle Jurassic of Russia (Mironenko 2015a), the Late Jurassic of Germany (Schweigert and Dietl 1999 Mapes et al. ![]() 2004), the Early Jurassic of Germany (Lehmann and Weitschat 1973 Wetzel 1979 Lehmann 1985 Riegraf et al. 2000) the Early Triassic of Greenland (Lehmann 1985), the Middle Triassic of Germany (Klug and Jerjen 2012), the Late Triassic of Austria (Doguzhaeva et al. 2015), the Permian of the USA (Tanabe et al. 2019), the Late Carboniferous of Paraguay (Closs 1967a, b Bandel 1988 Lehmann et al. 2016a, b), the Early Carboniferous of Bear Gulch (Landman et al. ![]() These include specimens from the Late Devonian of Morocco (Klug et al. ![]() Most ammonoid materials preserving remains of the soft parts come from conservation deposits worldwide. Also, sclerotized parts are rare in their bodies and limited to jaws, radula and the oesophagus.Īmmonoid soft-part preservation requires depositional conditions as found in conservation deposits, although the specimen published by Hollingworth and Hilton ( 1999 see also Klug and Lehmann 2015) shows that unusual preservation might also occur in unexpected sedimentological contexts. To some degree, this can be explained by the fact that the soft parts are surrounded by the conch and thus, even if they are preserved, they are hidden under the shell. 2019 Donovan and Fuchs 2016 Clements et al. The reproductive organs show traces of what might have been spermatophores, thus supporting the hypothesis that the microconchs represented the males.Īmmonoid conchs and jaws are known in great detail from a plethora of publications, while reports of identifiable soft parts are exceedingly rare or doubtful (Kolb 1961, 1967 Closs 1967a, b Zeiss 1968, 1969 Stürmer 1969 Otto 1994 Hollingworth and Hilton 1999 Schweigert and Dietl 1999 Klug and Lehmann 2015 Lehmann et al. This find is interesting because it adds to the knowledge of ammonite anatomy, which is normally hidden in the conch. We suggest that the soft parts were separated from the conch either taphonomically (following necrolytical processes affecting the attachment structures) or during a failed predation, where a predator (fish or coleoid) removed the soft parts from the conch but then dropped them. Alternative interpretations are also taken into account. Here, we document this find and attempt to homologize its parts with various organs such as the digestive tract, reproductive organs, the mantle cavity with gills, and the hyponome, with differing degrees of reservation. This exceptional preservation was enabled by the special depositional conditions in the marine basins of the Solnhofen Archipelago. Here, we document the soft parts of a perisphinctid ammonite from the early Tithonian of Wintershof near Eichstätt (Germany). Ammonoid soft parts have been rarely described. ![]()
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