Corthésy Nora, Antcliffe Jonathan B, Saleh Farid
Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne, Géopolis, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Nat Commun. 2025 Apr 29;16(1):3993. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59372-3.
The preservation of fossils in the rock record depends on complex redox processes. Redox conditions around different decaying organisms have rarely been monitored in the context of experimental taphonomy. Here, microsensors were used to measure redox changes around decomposing carcasses of various taxa, including shrimp, snail, starfish, and planarian. Our results show that different decaying taxa lead to various post-mortem environmental redox conditions. Large carcasses tend to reach reducing conditions more rapidly than smaller ones. However, size does not explain all observed patterns, as environmental redox conditions are also influenced by the nature of the organic material. For instance, taxa with higher proteins-to-lipids and (proteins + carbohydrates)-to-lipids ratios tend to achieve reducing conditions more rapidly than others. The generation of distinct redox environments around different taxa originally put under the same original environmental conditions suggests that various fossilisation patterns of macrofossils and molecules can co-occur within a single sedimentary layer.
岩石记录中化石的保存取决于复杂的氧化还原过程。在实验埋藏学的背景下，很少有人监测不同腐烂生物体周围的氧化还原条件。在这里，微传感器被用于测量各种分类群（包括虾、蜗牛、海星和涡虫）分解尸体周围的氧化还原变化。我们的结果表明，不同的腐烂分类群会导致死后不同的环境氧化还原条件。大型尸体往往比小型尸体更快达到还原条件。然而，大小并不能解释所有观察到的模式，因为环境氧化还原条件也受有机物质性质的影响。例如，蛋白质与脂质以及（蛋白质 + 碳水化合物）与脂质比率较高的分类群往往比其他分类群更快达到还原条件。在最初处于相同原始环境条件下的不同分类群周围产生不同的氧化还原环境，这表明在单个沉积层内可能同时出现宏观化石和分子的各种化石形成模式。
