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The Burgess Shale is a fossil-bearing deposit exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. At 508 million years old, it is one of the earliest fossil beds containing soft-part imprints.
The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period 485.4 million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period 443.8 Mya.
Flexicalymene Shirley, 1936. is a genus of trilobites belonging to the order Phacopida, suborder Calymenina and Family Calymenidae. Flexicalymene specimens can be mistaken for Calymene, Gravicalymene, Diacalymene and a few other Calymenina genera. They are used as an index fossil in the Ordovician. Ohio and North America are particularly known for being rich with Flexicalymene fossils.
The late Middle Jurassic lagerstätte at La Voulte-sur-Rhône, in the Ardèche region of southwestern France, offers paleontologists an outstanding view of an undisturbed paleoecosystem that was preserved in fine detail as organisms died at the site and settled to the bottom of a shallow epicontinental sea, with a folded floor that in places exceeded 200 m at this site. The site preserves a marine system of the Lower Callovian stage, a little over 160 mya. The sequence is exposed in a series of quarries at La Boissine, west of the village of La Voulte-sur-Rhône. Iron pyrites in the silty shale are symptoms of an anoxic environment. The site was recognized among French paleontologists from the mid-nineteenth century for its finely detailed fossils.
A number of assemblages bear fossil assemblages similar in character to that of the Burgess Shale. While many are also preserved in a similar fashion to the Burgess Shale, the term "Burgess Shale-type fauna" covers assemblages based on taxonomic criteria only.
Beecher's Trilobite Bed is a Konservat-Lagerstätte of Late Ordovician (Caradoc) age located within the Frankfort Shale in Cleveland's Glen, Oneida County, New York, USA. Only 3-4 centimeters thick, Beecher's Trilobite Bed has yielded numerous exceptionally preserved trilobites with the ventral anatomy and soft tissue intact, the soft tissue preserved by pyrite replacement. Pyritisation allows the use of X-rays to study fine detail of preserved soft body parts still within the host rock. Pyrite replacement of soft tissue is unusual in the fossil record; the only Lagerstätten thought to show such preservation were Beecher's Trilobite Bed, the Devonian Hunsrück Slates of Germany, and the Jurassic beds of La Voulte-sur-Rhône in France, although new locations are coming to light in New York state.
The preservational regime of Beecher's Trilobite Bed and other similar localities involves the replacement of soft tissues with pyrite, producing a three-dimensional fossil replicating the anatomy of the original organism. Only gross morphological information is preserved, although the fossils are compressed some relief is preserved.
Permineralization is a process of fossilization of bones and tissues in which mineral deposits form internal casts of organisms. Carried by water, these minerals fill the spaces within organic tissue. Because of the nature of the casts, permineralization is particularly useful in studies of the internal structures of organisms, usually of plants.
The Stephen Formation is a geologic formation exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia and Alberta, on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It consists of shale, thin-bedded limestone, and siltstone that was deposited during Middle Cambrian time. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of soft-bodied fossils: the Burgess Shale biota. The formation overlies the Cathedral escarpment, a submarine cliff; consequently it is divided into two quite separate parts, the 'thin' sequence deposited in the shallower waters atop the escarpment, and the 'thick' sequence deposited in the deeper waters beyond the cliff. Because the 'thick' Stephen Formation represents a distinct lithofacies, some authors suggest it warrants its own name, and dub it the Burgess Shale Formation. The stratigraphy of the Thin Stephen Formation has not been subject to extensive study, so except where explicitly mentioned this article applies mainly to the Thick Stephen Formation.
The Walcott–Rust quarry, in Herkimer County, New York, is an excellent example of an obrution Lagerstätte. Unique preservation of trilobite appendages resulted from early consolidation (cementation) of the surrounding rock, followed by spar filling of the interior cavity within the appendages. The presence of so many well preserved trilobites in one location alone qualifies the beds as an exceptional trilobite site, but the beds are further distinguished as the source of the first trilobites for which appendages were definitively described.
The Burgess Shale, a series of fossil beds in the Canadian Rockies, was first noticed in 1886 by Richard McConnell of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). His and subsequent finds, all from the Mount Stephen area, came to the attention of palaeontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott, who in 1907 found time to reconnoitre the area. He opened a quarry in 1910 and in a series of field trips brought back 65,000 specimens, which he identified as Middle Cambrian in age. Due to the quantity of fossils and the pressures of his other duties at the Smithsonian Institution, Walcott was only able to publish a series of "preliminary" papers, in which he classified the fossils within taxa that were already established. In a series of visits beginning in 1924, Harvard University professor Percy Raymond collected further fossils from Walcott's quarry and higher up on Fossil Ridge, where slightly different fossils were preserved.
The Mount Stephen trilobite beds are a series of fossil strata on Mount Stephen, British Columbia that contain exceptionally preserved fossil material. Part of the same stratigraphic unit as the Burgess Shale deposit, many non-mineralized parts are preserved; in addition, a high density of trilobite fossils is present.
Allt Penycoed Stream Section is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is protected by law and has been designated as an SSSI since April 1985 in an attempt to protect rare or unique features or species within it. The site has an area of 1.62 hectares and is managed by Natural Resources Wales.
Paleontology in Wisconsin refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The state has fossils from the Precambrian, much of the Paleozoic, and the later part of the Cenozoic. Most of the Paleozoic rocks are marine in origin. Because of the thick blanket of Pleistocene glacial sediment that covers the rock strata in most of the state, Wisconsin’s fossil record is relatively sparse. In spite of this, certain Wisconsin paleontological occurrences provide exceptional insights concerning the history and diversity of life on Earth.
Robeston Wathen Quarries is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, immediately to the north of the village of Robeston Wathen. It has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest since January 1967 in an attempt to protect its fragile geological elements. The site has an area of 1.64 hectares and is managed by Natural Resources Wales.
The Milwaukee Formation is a fossil-bearing geological formation of Middle Devonian age in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. It stands out for the exceptional diversity of its fossil biota. Included are many kinds of marine protists, invertebrates, and fishes, as well as early trees and giant fungi.
The geology of Morocco formed beginning up to two billion years ago, in the Paleoproterozoic and potentially even earlier. It was affected by the Pan-African orogeny, although the later Hercynian orogeny produced fewer changes and left the Maseta Domain, a large area of remnant Paleozoic massifs. During the Paleozoic, extensive sedimentary deposits preserved marine fossils. Throughout the Mesozoic, the rifting apart of Pangaea to form the Atlantic Ocean created basins and fault blocks, which were blanketed in terrestrial and marine sediments—particularly as a major marine transgression flooded much of the region. In the Cenozoic, a microcontinent covered in sedimentary rocks from the Triassic and Cretaceous collided with northern Morocco, forming the Rif region. Morocco has extensive phosphate and salt reserves, as well as resources such as lead, zinc, copper and silver.
The Nod Glas Formation is an Ordovician lithostratigraphic group in Mid Wales. The rock of the formation is made up of pyritous, graptolitic mudstone that is generally black in colour. It weathers to a soft, very well cleaved and coal-like material. The formation runs from Conwy in the north, down to Cardigan Bay in the area around Aberdyfi and Tywyn, though it is not a continuous over this area.
The Waukesha Biota refers to a Konservat-Lagerstätte of Early Silurian age found within the Brandon Bridge Formation in Waukesha County and Franklin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. It is known for the exceptional preservation of its diverse, soft-bodied and lightly skeletonized taxa, including many major taxa found nowhere else in strata of similar age. The sites discovery was announced in 1985, thus leading to a wide plethora of discoveries being made. This biota is one of the few well studied lagerstättes from the Silurian, making it very important in our understanding of Silurian faunas. Some of the taxa found here are not easily classified into known animal groups, showing that there is a great amount of studying that needs to be done on this site. Other taxa that are normally common in other Silurian deposits are rare here, but Trilobites are still quite common in the area. This site is also important because it shows that while Wisconsin's paleontology is often overlooked, it still provides exceptional insights concerning the history and diversity of life on Earth.
This is a list of the known fauna and flora from the Waukesha Lagerstätte, an early Silurian fossil site located in the counties of Waukesha, Franklin and Milwaukee within U.S the state of Wisconsin.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Botting, Joseph (March 2004). "An exceptional Caradoc sponge fauna from the Llanfawr Quarries, central Wales, and phylogenetic implications". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 2: 31–63. doi:10.1017/s147720190300110x. S2CID 83477858.
- 1 2 The Upper Llanfawr Quarry RIGS Statement of Interest