Cambrian Lagerstätten: their distribution and significance
- 17 October 1985
- journal article
- Published by The Royal Society in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences
- Vol. 311 (1148) , 49-65
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1985.0138
Abstract
The geological setting, biotic diversity and taphonomy of Cambrian soft-bodied Lagerstätten are reviewed with special reference to the Lower Cambrian Emu Bay Shale (South Australia) and Kinzers Formation (Pennsylvania), and the Middle Cambrian Stephen Formation (Burgess Shale and adjacent localities, British Columbia). Brief mention is made also of a number of more minor occurrences in the U.S.A., China and Spain. Exceptional preservation in the Upper Cambrian is discussed by K. J. Müller (this symposium). These soft-bodied Lagerstätten afford a series of special insights into the nature of Cambrian life. Emphasis is laid on the information they provide with regards (i) levels of diversity and the proportion of skeletized taxa; (ii) the origin and relative success of bodyplans; (iii) community ecology and evolution.Keywords
This publication has 39 references indexed in Scilit:
- Burgess shalePublished by Springer Nature ,2006
- A comparative study of Lower Cambrian Halkieria and Middle Cambrian WiwaxiaLethaia, 1984
- New Burgess Shale Fossil Sites Reveal Middle Cambrian Faunal ComplexScience, 1983
- The Ediacarian Period and System: Metazoa Inherit the EarthScience, 1982
- The arthropodSidneyia inexpectans, Middle Cambrian, Burgess Shale, British ColumbiaPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences, 1981
- The Burgess Shale (Middle Cambrian) FaunaAnnual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 1979
- Middle Cambrian polychaetes from the Burgess Shale of British ColumbiaPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences, 1979
- The morphology, mode of life, and affinities ofCanadaspis perfecta(Crustacea: Phyllocarida), Middle Cambrian, Burgess Shale, British ColumbiaPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences, 1978
- Lower Cambrian trace fossil evidence for predation on trilobitesLethaia, 1975
- SOME PROBLEMS AND PATTERNS OF EVOLUTION EXEMPLIFIED BY FOSSIL INVERTEBRATESEvolution, 1948