FRAGILE spirals that have been perfectly preserved in the fossil record could owe their survival to a kind of natural cling film.
The creatures, called Spirograptus, lived about 428 million years ago. They left behind delicate corkscrew shaped spines when they died, which were often squashed flat and fossilised without breaking or filling up with dirt. The mystery of this preservation has now been explained by a protective layer of bacteria and 鈥渕arine snow鈥濃�攖iny bits of organic matter that settle on the ocean floor.
Former student Helen Jones at the University of Leicester experimented with equally delicate passion flower tendrils. She found that a millimetre-thick layer of gelatinous microbes taken from a local pond protected the spiral tendrils when they were covered with dirt and pressed flat (Geology, vol 30, p 343).
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