Preservation of fossils in clay minerals; a unique example from the Upper Ordovician Soom Shale, South Africa

Gabbott, S. E.; Norry, M. J.; Aldridge, R. J.; Theron, J. N.

doi:10.1144/pygs.53.3.237

Preservation of fossils in clay minerals; a unique example from the Upper Ordovician Soom Shale, South Africa

SUMMARY In the Soom Shale, labile soft tissues have been replaced rapidly after death by authigenic clay minerals which now have an illitic composition. There are two possible pathways for this mineralization: (1) initial replacement of soft tissue by kaolinite which was then diagenetically trans…