Burgess shale−type biotas were not entirely burrowed away
Abstract
Burgess Shale-type biotas occur globally in the Cambrian record and offer unparalleled insight into the Cambrian explosion, the initial Phanerozoic radiation of the Metazoa. Deposits bearing exceptionally preserved soft-bodied fossils are unusually common in Cambrian strata; more than 40 are now known. The well-documented decline of soft-bodied preservation following the Middle Cambrian represents the closure of a taphonomic window that was only intermittently open in marine environments thereafter. The prevailing hypothesis for this secular shift in taphonomic conditions of outer shelf environments is that soft-bodied biotas were literally burrowed away from the fossil record by increasing infaunal activity in muddy substrate environments; this would have affected geochemical gradients and increased the efficiency of organic matter recycling in sediments. New and recently published data, however, suggest a more complex scenario. Ichnologic and microstratigraphic data from Burgess Shale-type deposits indicate that (1) bioturbation exerts a limiting effect on soft-bodied preservation; (2) the observed increase in the depth and extent or bioturbation following the Middle Cambrian would have restricted preservation of Burgess Shale type biotas in a number of settings; but (3) increasing depth and extent of bioturbation would not have affected preservation in many other settings, including the most richly fossiliferous portions of the Chengjiang (China) deposit and the Greater Ph…
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The unusual abundance of exceptionally preserved biotas in the Cambrian has not been adequately explained.
“the unusual abundance of exceptionally preserved biotas in the Cambrian (1) has not been adequately explained (14).”
From Mechanism for Burgess Shale-type preservation (2012) · cites this paper as [14]
After entombment in this microenvironment, degradation of soft tissues was sufficiently suppressed to allow the preservation of features of nonmineralized anatomy through a critical window in early diagenesis when labile tissues are typically lost.
“After entombment in this microenvironment, degradation of soft tissues was sufficiently suppressed to allow the preservation of features of nonmineralized anatomy through a critical window in early diagenesis when labile tissues are typically lost (14).”
From Mechanism for Burgess Shale-type preservation (2012) · cites this paper as [14]
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- Authors
- Gaines, R. R., Droser, M. L., Orr, P. J., Garson, D., Hammarlund, E., Qi, C., & Canfield, D. E.
- Affiliations
- Pomona College (US)
- University of California, Riverside (US)
- University College Dublin (IE)
- Swedish Museum of Natural History (SE)
- Yunnan University (CN)
- Venue
- Geology
- Publisher
- Geological Society of America
- Published
- 2012-03
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 283-286
- ISSN
- 0091-7613 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-2682
- OpenAlex
- W2044506467
- Cited by
- 47
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 5.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Geology (publishedVersion)
- University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (publishedVersion)
- Scholarship - Claremont (Claremont Colleges) (submittedVersion)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Keywords
- bioturbation, Cambrian explosion, taphonomy, Middle Cambrian
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