Figure 8
From: An ancestral hard-shelled sea turtle with a mosaic of soft skin and scutes
Side-by-side comparison of electron micrographs between modern sea turtle epidermis (a,c,e) and DK 807 flipper tissues (b,d,f). (a) SEM micrograph of the skin covering in a hatchling loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta, showing melanosomes partially embedded in layered cornified proteins within the epidermis. (b) FEG-SEM micrograph of DK 807 flipper residue with swaths of sheet-like organic matter that partially covers remnant melanosomes. (c) TEM micrograph of carapace epidermis from a hatchling leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea. (d) TEM micrograph of DK 807 flipper skin residue. (e) TEM micrograph of the carapace epidermis of a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta, with corneous protein filaments. (f) Close-up TEM micrograph of filamentous matter in the fossil flipper residue. Scale bars, 2 μm (a,b,d), 10 μm (c), 500 nm (e), 100 nm (f).
