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Widespread preservation of small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs) in the Early Cambrian of North Greenland

Ben J. Slater, Sebastian Willman, Graham E. Budd and John S. Peel
Widespread preservation of small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs) in the Early Cambrian of North Greenland
Geology (Boulder) (February 2018) 46 (2): 107-110

Abstract

The early Cambrian (ca. 518 Ma) Sirius Passet Lagerstatte of North Greenland is one of the most celebrated sites bearing fossils of soft-bodied organisms, and provides key insights into the Cambrian explosion of animal life. Unlike the younger Burgess Shale (508 Ma), the Sirius Passet biota does not preserve original carbonaceous material because of its history of metamorphic heating. Nearby sediments from within the same formation, however, have escaped the worst effects of thermal alteration. We report an entirely new diversity of metazoan remains preserved in a Burgess Shale-type fashion from sediments throughout the Buen Formation, in the form of small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs). The assemblages include the oldest known pterobranch hemichordates, diverse cuticular spines of scalidophoran worms, demineralized trilobite cuticle, bivalved arthropods (Spinospitella-like and Isoxys-like forms), protoconodonts, and a variety of less phylogenetically constrained metazoan and protistan forms. Together these SCFs capture exceptional microanatomical details of early Cambrian metazoans and offer new insights into taphonomic pathways at Sirius Passet and the nature of Burgess Shale-type preservation.


ISSN: 0091-7613
EISSN: 1943-2682
Coden: GLGYBA
Serial Title: Geology (Boulder)
Serial Volume: 46
Serial Issue: 2
Title: Widespread preservation of small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs) in the Early Cambrian of North Greenland
Affiliation: Uppsala University, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
Pages: 107-110
Published: 201802
Text Language: English
Publisher: Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, United States
References: 47
Accession Number: 2018-041848
Categories: General paleontology
Document Type: Serial
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
Annotation: GSA Data Repository item 2018023
Illustration Description: illus. incl. sketch map
Country of Publication: United States
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2018, American Geosciences Institute. Reference includes data from GeoScienceWorld, Alexandria, VA, United States. Reference includes data supplied by the Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, United States
Update Code: 201810
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