{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T11:56:59Z","timestamp":1789991819385,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"The Royal Society","issue":"1876","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,11]],"date-time":"2018-04-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1523404800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/royalsociety.org\/journals\/ethics-policies\/data-sharing-mining\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100018619","name":"National Program for Support of Top-notch Young Professionals","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100018619","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["41222014, 41172023, 41621003, 41102012"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41222014, 41172023, 41621003, 41102012"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"the \"973\" Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China","award":["2013CB837100"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2013CB837100"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["royalsocietypublishing.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Proc. R. Soc. B."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,11]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The Chengjiang fossil<jats:italic>Lagerst\u00e4tte<\/jats:italic>(Cambrian Stage 3) from Yunnan, southern China is renowned for its soft-tissue preservation. Accordingly structures in fuxianhuiids, radiodontans and great appendage arthropods have been interpreted as the nervous and cardiovascular systems, including brains, hearts and blood vessels. That such delicate organ systems survive the fossilization process seems remarkable; given that this mode of preservation involves major taphonomic changes, such as flattening, microbial degradation, chemical alteration and replacement. Here, we document a range of taphonomic preservation states in numerous articulated individuals of<jats:italic>Fuxianhuia protensa<\/jats:italic>. We suggest that organic (partly iron mineral-replaced) bulbous structures in the head region, previously interpreted as brain tissue, along with sagittally located organic strands interpreted as part of the cardiovascular system or as nerve cords, may be better explained as microbial biofilms that developed following decomposition of the intestine, muscle and other connective tissues, forming halos surrounding the original organic remains.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1098\/rspb.2018.0051","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,11]],"date-time":"2018-04-11T07:25:15Z","timestamp":1523431515000},"page":"20180051","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1098\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Microbial decay analysis challenges interpretation of putative organ systems in Cambrian fuxianhuiids"],"prefix":"10.1098","volume":"285","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6326-3180","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jianni","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Early Life Institute, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments, The Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, People's Republic of China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michael","family":"Steiner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Earth Science, Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin, 12249, Berlin, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0179-6640","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jason A.","family":"Dunlop","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Museum f\u00fcr Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity at the Humboldt University Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Degan","family":"Shu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Early Life Institute, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments, The Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, People's Republic of China"},{"name":"School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"175","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_6_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.264.5163.1304"},{"key":"e_1_3_6_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.268.5215.1339"},{"key":"e_1_3_6_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.18261\/8200376931-1997-01","article-title":"Arthropods of the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna southwest China","volume":"45","author":"Hou XG","year":"1997","journal-title":"Fossils Strata"},{"key":"e_1_3_6_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/46965"},{"key":"e_1_3_6_6_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/35106514"},{"key":"e_1_3_6_7_2","volume-title":"The Cambrian fossils of Chengjiang, China: the flowering of early animal life","author":"Hou XG","year":"2004"},{"key":"e_1_3_6_8_2","first-page":"77","volume-title":"Arthropod fossils and phylogeny","author":"Ramsk\u00f6ld L","year":"1998"},{"key":"e_1_3_6_9_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nature09704"},{"key":"e_1_3_6_10_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.palaeo.2013.06.008"},{"key":"e_1_3_6_11_2","first-page":"135","article-title":"Chronostratigraphic subdivision of the Cambrian of China","volume":"1","author":"Peng SC","year":"2003","journal-title":"Geologica. 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