Abstract
Recent fossil discoveries from the lower Cambrian Emu Bay Shale (EBS) on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, have provided critical insights into the tempo of the Cambrian explosion of animals, such as the origin and seemingly rapid evolution of arthropod compound eyes, as well as extending the geographical ranges of several groups to the East Gondwanan margin, supporting close faunal affinities with South China. The EBS also holds great potential for broadening knowledge on taphonomic pathways involved in the exceptional preservation of fossils in Cambrian Konservat-Lagerstätten. EBS fossils display a range of taphonomic modes for a variety of soft tissues, especially phosphatization and pyritization, in some cases recording a level of anatomical detail that is absent from most Cambrian Konservat-Lagerstätten.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-11 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of The Geological Society |
Volume | 173 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 10 Nov 2015 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2016 |
Keywords
- Adaptive radiation
- Arthropoda
- Australasia
- Australia
- Biodiversity
- Biogeography
- Cambrian
- Communities
- Gondwana
- Invertebrata
- Kangaroo Island
- Lagerstatten
- Lower Cambrian
- Nearshore environment
- Paleoenvironment
- Paleozoic
- Porifera
- Preservation
- Problematic fossils
- South Australia
- Taphonomy
- Trilobita
- Trilobitomorpha
- Emu Bay Shale
- Palaeoscolecida
- Lobopodia
- Vetulicolia
- Lamellipedia
- Spiralia
- Myoscolex