Cambrian Burgess Shale Animals Replicated in Clay Minerals

1998/08/21 by Patrick J. Orr, Derek E. G. Briggs, Stuart Kearns · 8 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Geological formations and processes #Geochemistry and Elemental Analysis

paper · doi:10.1126/science.281.5380.1173

openalex publication_date 1998/08/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

Although the evolutionary importance of the Burgess Shale is universally acknowledged, there is disagreement on the mode of preservation of the fossils after burial. Elemental mapping demonstrates that the relative abundance of elements varies between different anatomical features of the specimens. These differences reflect the compositions of the minerals that replicated the decaying organism, which were controlled by contrasts in tissue chemistry. Delicate morphological details are replicated in the elemental maps, showing that authigenic mineralization was fundamental to preserving these fossils, even though some organic remains are also present.

Citations

• Organic preservation of non-mineralizing organisms and the taphonomy of the Burgess Shale

Cited by

• Post-Cambrian closure of the deep-water slope-basin taphonomic window
• Ubiquitous Burgess Shale–style “clay templates” in low-grade metamorphic mudrocks
• Exceptional Preservation
• Natural assemblages of the conodont Clarkina in lowermost Triassic deep-sea black claystone from northeastern Japan, with probable soft-tissue impressions
• Stranger than a scorpion: a reassessment of Parioscorpio venator, a problematic arthropod from the Llandoverian Waukesha Lagerstätte
• Sedimentation of the Phyllopod Bed within the Cambrian Burgess Shale Formation of British Columbia
• Exceptional Fossil Preservation and the Cambrian Explosion
• Cambrian [wikipedia]