British researchers conducted experiments observing the carcasses of dead sea bass, which
Most fossils arebones, shells, teeth and other forms of "hard" tissues, but occasionally rare fossils are found that preserve soft tissues such as skin, muscle, organs and even the occasional eyeball.
According to Clement et al., no previous study has focused on documenting pH (acidity) gradients associated with the breakdown of specific anatomical features as the carcass rots in real time; Past experiments have focused on recording pH fluctuations outside the carcass. So the team decided to fill this gap and conduct experiments on decomposing fish, documenting the change in pH gradient over a period of two and a half months.
At first they acquired several adultsEuropean sea bass that died no more than 24-36 hours ago. The fish was kept on ice to slow down the decomposition process, but not frozen to avoid cell damage. They then inserted pH probes into various locations on each sea bass carcass to study specific organs: the stomach, liver, intestines, and epiaxial muscle. The fifth probe was used to monitor environmental pH at a distance of 1 to 2 mm from the carcass.
The whole plant was placed in a container,filled with artificial sea water, and the container was placed in a large water bath to minimize temperature fluctuations. The probes were connected to an external electronic reader, and data was recorded every half an hour during the entire experiment.
By day 70, the carcasses had completely disintegrated, "leaving fragments of skin, scales, gelatinous white matter, bones and some intact fin rays," "8211 the authors write.
The results of the study showed that the organs were notcreate a special microenvironment – they all rot together in a kind of “soup”. “This means that the likelihood of organs becoming fossils is determined by the specific chemical composition of the tissues,” the authors concluded.