The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the English-speaking world and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (December 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Part of a series on
Paleontology
Fossils Fossilization Trace fossil Microfossil Fossil preparation Index fossil List of fossils List of fossil sites Lagerstätte fossil beds List of transitional fossils List of human evolution fossils
Natural history Biogeography Extinction event Geochronology Geologic time scale Geologic record History of life Origin of life Paleoclimatology Timeline of evolution Transitional fossil
Organs and processes Avian flight Cells Multicells Eyes Flagella Hair Mammalian auditory ossicles Mosaic evolution Nervous systems Sex
Evolution of various taxa Birds Butterflies Cephalopods Cetaceans Dinosaurs Fishes Fungi Humans Insects Mammals Molluscs Plants Reptiles Sea cows Spiders Tetrapods
Evolution Introduction to evolution Common descent Phylogeny Cladistics Biological classification
History of paleontology History of paleontology Timeline of paleontology
Branches of paleontology Biostratigraphy Ichnology Invertebrate paleontology Micropaleontology Molecular paleontology Palaeoxylology Paleobiology Paleobotany Paleoecology Paleogenetics Paleolimnology Paleomycology Paleoneurobiology Paleopathology Paleopedology Paleotempestology Paleozoology Palynology Sclerochronology Taphonomy Vertebrate paleontology
Paleontology Portal Category
v t e

A Fossil-Lagerstätte (German: [ˈlaːɡɐˌʃtɛtə], from Lager 'storage, lair' Stätte 'place'; plural Lagerstätten) is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These formations may have resulted from carcass burial in an anoxic environment with minimal bacteria, thus delaying the decomposition of both gross and fine biological features until long after a durable impression was created in the surrounding matrix. Fossil-Lagerstätten span geological time from the Neoproterozoic era to the present.

Worldwide, some of the best examples of near-perfect fossilization are the Cambrian Maotianshan shales and Burgess Shale, the Ordovician Soom Shale, the Silurian Waukesha Biota, the Devonian Hunsrück Slates and Gogo Formation, the Carboniferous Mazon Creek, the Triassic Madygen Formation, the Jurassic Posidonia Shale and Solnhofen Limestone, the Cretaceous Yixian, Santana, & Agua Nueva formations and the Tanis Fossil Site, the Eocene Fur Formation, Green River Formation, Messel Formation & Monte Bolca, the Miocene Foulden Maar and Ashfall Fossil Beds, the Pliocene Gray Fossil Site, and the Pleistocene Naracoorte Caves & La Brea Tar Pits.

Types

Palaeontologists distinguish two kinds:^[1][2]

1. Konzentrat-Lagerstätten (concentration Lagerstätten) are deposits with a particular "concentration" of disarticulated organic hard parts, such as a bone bed. These Lagerstätten are less spectacular than the more famous Konservat-Lagerstätten. Their contents invariably display a large degree of time averaging, as the accumulation of bones in the absence of other sediment takes some time. Deposits with a high concentration of fossils that represent an in situ community, such as reefs or oyster beds, are not considered Lagerstätten.
2. Konservat-Lagerstätten (conservation Lagerstätten) are deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces. The individual taphonomy of the fossils varies with the sites. Conservation Lagerstätten are crucial in elucidating important moments in the history and evolution of life. For example, the Burgess Shale of British Columbia is associated with the Cambrian explosion, and the Solnhofen limestone with the earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx.

Preservation

Konservat-Lagerstätten preserve lightly sclerotized and soft-bodied organisms or traces of organisms that are not otherwise preserved in the usual shelly and bony fossil record; thus, they offer more complete records of ancient biodiversity and behavior and enable some reconstruction of the palaeoecology of ancient aquatic communities. In 1986, Simon Conway Morris calculated only about 14% of genera in the Burgess Shale had possessed biomineralized tissues in life. The affinities of the shelly elements of conodonts were mysterious until the associated soft tissues were discovered near Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Granton Lower Oil Shale of the Carboniferous.^[3] Information from the broader range of organisms found in Lagerstätten have contributed to recent phylogenetic reconstructions of some major metazoan groups. Lagerstätten seem to be temporally autocorrelated, perhaps because global environmental factors such as climate might affect their deposition.^[4]

A number of taphonomic pathways may produce Konservat-Lagerstätten:^[5]

• Phosphatization (replacing soft tissues with phosphate, such as Orsten-type and Doushantuo-type preservations).
• Silicification (replacing or entombing soft tissues with silica, such as petrified wood or Bitter Springs-type preservation).
• Kerogenization (soft tissues converted into inert carbonaceous films, as found in Burgess Shale-type preservation).
• Aluminosilification (replacing or coating soft tissues with films of aluminosilicate minerals).
• Pyritization (replacing soft tissues with pyrite, such as the exquisite detail found in Beecher's trilobite-type preservation).
• Calcification (replacing or soft tissues with calcite minerals).
• Siderite or calcite nodules (chemicals released by decaying soft tissue modify the surrounding sediment into a siderite concretion or coal ball encasing the fossil, as found in the Mazon Creek fossil beds).
• Rapid sediment cementation (impressions of soft tissue preserved through casts and molds in the surrounding sediment, such as Ediacaran-type preservation facilitated by microbial mats).
• Amber (soft tissues encased in hardened tree resin).

The identification of a fossil site as a Konservat-Lagerstätte may be based on a number of different factors which constitute "exceptional preservation". These may include the completeness of specimens, soft tissue preservation, fine-scale detail, taxonomic richness, distinctive taphonomic pathways (often multiple at the same site), the extent of the fossil layer in time and space, and particular sediment facies encouraging preservation.^[5]

Notable Lagerstätten

The world's major Lagerstätten include:

Precambrian

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Nonesuch Formation	1083-1070 Ma	Michigan, USA	An oxygenated Mesoproterozoic lake[6] containing exceptionally preserved limnic microbes.[7]
Lakhanda Lagerstätte	1030-1000 Ma	Uchur-Maya Depression, Russia	A site preserving a Mesoproterozoic community dominated by anaerobic bacteria.[8] The lagerstätte contains evidence of trophic interactions from the Boring Billion.[9][10]
Bitter Springs	1000–850 Ma	South Australia	Preserved fossils include cyanobacteria microfossils.
Diabaig Formation	994 ± 48 Ma[11]	Scotland	An estuarine environment preserving phosphatic microfossils, which represent some of the oldest known non-marine eukaryotes.[12]
Dolores Creek Formation	950 Ma	Yukon, Canada	An Early Tonian site containing pyritised macroalgal fossils.[13]
Chichkan Lagerstätte	775 Ma	Kazakhstan	A site from the transition between the prokaryote-dominated biota of the Early Neoproterozoic and the eukaryote-dominated biota of the Late Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic.[14]
Doushantuo Formation	600–555 Ma	Guizhou Province, China	Spans the poorly understood interval between the end of the Cryogenian period and the late Ediacaran Avalon explosion.
Portfjeld Formation	570 Ma	North Greenland	A Middle Ediacaran biota from the continent of Laurentia exhibiting Doushantuo-type preservation.[15]
Mistaken Point	565 Ma	Newfoundland, Canada	This site contains one of the most diverse and well-preserved collections of Precambrian fossils.
Ediacara Hills	555 Ma	South Australia	The type location the Ediacaran period, and has preserved a significant amount of fossils from that time.
Shibantan Lagerstätte	551-543 Ma	Hubei, China	A terminal Ediacaran fossil assemblage preserving life forms living just before the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic transition.[16]
Gaojiashan Lagerstätte	551-541 Ma	Shaanxi, China	A lagerstätte documenting tube growth patterns of Cloudina.[17]
Jiucheng Member	551-543 Ma	Yunnan, China	A latest Ediacaran macrofossil biota dominated by giant, unbranching thallophytes.[18]
Khatyspyt Lagerstätte	544 Ma	Yakutia, Russia	A Late Ediacaran lagerstätte preserving an Avalon-type biota.[19]

Cambrian

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Zhangjiagou	Fortunian	Shaanxi, China	A lagerstätte from the earliest Cambrian notable for its fossils of cnidarians,[20] cycloneuralians,[21][22] and the basal ecdysozoan Saccorhytus coronarius.[23]
Maotianshan Shales (Chengjiang)	518 Ma	Yunnan, China	The preservation of an extremely diverse faunal assemblage renders the Maotianshan shale the world's most important for understanding the evolution of early multi-cellular life.
Qingjiang biota	518 Ma	Hubei, China	This site is particularly notable due to both the large proportion of new taxa represented (approximately 53% of the specimens), and the notable volume of soft-body tissue preservation.
Sirius Passet	523-518 Ma	Greenland	A site known for its fauna, and that they were most likely preserved by a death mask. It is a part of the larger Buen Formation, and has a fauna similar to the Maotianshan shales.
Poleta Formation	519-518 Ma	Nevada, USA	The middle member of the formation preserves the Indian Springs Lagerstätte, one of the oldest such sites from former Laurentia. This site preserves a diversity of mineralized organisms such as trilobites and brachiopods, but also non-mineralized remains such as sponges, algae, and soft-bodied arthropods.[24]
Sinsk Algal Lens	518 Ma	Yakutia, Russia	One of the oldest known Cambrian lagerstätten. The fauna of this site is unique, as it seems that they were adapted to living in dysaerobic conditions.[25]
Emu Bay Shale	513 Ma	South Australia	Noted soft tissue mineralization, most often of blocky apatite or fibrous calcium carbonate, including the oldest phosphatized muscle tissue.
Kaili Formation	513–501 Ma	Guizhou, China	The middle part of the Kaili Formation, the Oryctocephalus indicus Zone, contains a Burgess Shale-type lagerstätte with many well-preserved fossils known collectively as the Kaili Biota.
Murero Lagerstätte	511-503 Ma	Spain	Thanks to the paleontological content, mainly trilobites, fourteen biozones have been established, the most precise biozonation for this time interval in the world. It also records in detail the so-called Valdemiedes event, the mass extinction episode at the end of the Lower Cambrian.[26]
Blackberry Hill	~510–500 Ma	Central Wisconsin, US	This site preserves some of the oldest evidence of multicellular life walking out of the ocean, and onto dry land (in the form of large mollusks and euthycarcinoid arthropods). Other notable fossils include stranded scyphozoans, and some of the oldest true crustaceans (in the form of phyllocarids).
Burgess Shale	508 Ma	British Columbia, Canada	One of the most famous fossil localities in the world. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. At 508 million years old (middle Cambrian), it is one of the earliest fossil beds containing soft-part imprints.
Spence Shale	507 Ma	Northeastern Utah, Southeastern Idaho, US	A site known for its abundant Cambrian trilobites and the preservation of Burgess Shale-type fossils. The type locality for this site is Spence Gulch in southeastern Idaho.
Linyi Lagerstätte	504 Ma	Shandong, China	A lagerstätte recognised for its exceptional preservation of arthropod limbs, intestines, and eyes.[27]
Wheeler Shale (House Range)	504 Ma	Western Utah, US	A world-famous locality known for its prolific agnostid and Elrathia kingii trilobite remains. Varied soft bodied organisms are also locally preserved, including Naraoia, Wiwaxia and Hallucigenia.
Marjum Formation	502 Ma	Western Utah, US	A site known for its occasional preservation of soft-bodied tissue, and diverse assemblage.
Weeks Formation	500 Ma	Western Utah, US	A site that is dominated by trilobites and brachiopods, but also comprising various soft-bodied organisms, such as Falcatamacaris.
Kinnekulle Orsten and Alum Shale	500 Ma	Sweden	The Orsten sites reveals the oldest well-documented benthic meiofauna in the fossil record. Fossils such as microfossils of arthropods like free-living pentastomids are known. Multiple "Orsten-type" lagerstätten are also known from other countries.

Ordovician

Copyright.sk © 2024