See more from this Division: General Discipline Sessions
See more from this Session: Paleontology IV - Exceptional Preservation and Taphonomy
Abstract:
Results indicate that these mudstones alternate between laminated and bioturbated on a mm scale with burrows generally small with burrow depths and widths both in the sub-cm scale. This suggests a rapidly fluctuating bottom water oxygenation with background oxygen levels not high enough to support infaunal communities punctuated by oxygenation events. Burgess Shale-type preservation within the Spence Shale (mostly of cyanobacteria) is largely confined to laminated sediments consistent with anoxia. Within the same strata as soft bodied fossils there is also a diverse skeletonized benthic fauna including various polymerid trilobites, hyolithids, lingulid brachiopods and eocrinoids suggesting that during times when oxygen was present a complex dysoxic benthic community was established.
See more from this Division: General Discipline Sessions
See more from this Session: Paleontology IV - Exceptional Preservation and Taphonomy