Abstract
Decay experiments on organisms under controlled laboratory conditions provide a powerful tool for understanding the preservation potential of organisms in the rock record. These experiments have been applied to numerous animal groups, including but not limited to echinoderms, annelids, priapulids, chordates, and arthropods. However, little work has focused on the degradation of arthropod appendages, despite their abundance in many fossil sites. Here, we compare the decay of appendages in freshwater and saltwater shrimps. Our results show that appendages decay faster in freshwater than in saltwater. More importantly, setae on these appendages are preserved in minute detail and do not exhibit signs of degradation, even after the appendages have separated from the body. These results are then compared to appendage preservation patterns in the fossil record with a particular focus on radiodonts since their taxonomy and paleoecology largely rely on the shape and fine details of their frontal appendages. We suggest that radiodont appendages with differences in setal number are unlikely to represent taphonomic variations of the same species but are more likely to belong to different taxa.
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