The delicate internal organs of the Cambrian arthropods, such as the digestive and nervous systems, provide significant insights into the evolution of early life and the Cambrian ecosystems. As such, their original morphology and preservation mechanisms have been the focus of research in recent years, indicating that the exploration on the preservation mechanisms of soft tissues requires a variety of textural experiments and theories. As a branch of taphonomy, the experimental taphonomy provides important theoretical supports and empirical means for interpreting anatomical structures during fossilization of dead bodies and the formation of a Lagerst?tte. We present this experimental means on the guts and ventral nerve cords of the arthropod Penaeus vannamei under different temperatures and combined conditions in order to observe the degradation process of these soft tissues. The result shows that the degradation trends of guts and ventral nerve cords are similar at different temperatures, but at different rates. The rate and degree of degradations of gut and ventral nerve cord materials at 25 ℃ are significantly higher than those at 10 ℃. At the same temperature, the degradations of guts and ventral nerve cords are different in the early stage. The morphology and the amount of biofilms produced by the degradation at 10 ℃ are totally different. The amount of biofilms produced by the combination of guts and ventral nerve cords is much higher than those produced separately by guts and ventral nerve cords. It is also difficult to distinguish the biofilms produced by the guts and ventral nerve cords. Therefore, temperature is an important factor affecting the speed and degree of gut and ventral nerve cord degradation. In addition, microorganisms play an important biochemical role during the degradation process of biological organs and tissues. The degradation process of biological organs and tissues, associated with the formation of biofilm, has a great influence on the morphological characteristics of fossils, especially the preservation and interpretation of delicate internal structures
