The Emu Bay Shale Konservat-Lagerstätte: a view of Cambrian life from East Gondwana

John Paterson, Diego Garcia-Bellido, James Jago, James Gehling, Michael S.Y. Lee, Gregory Edgecombe

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    95 Citations (Scopus)

    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 languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1-11
    Number of pages11
    JournalJournal of The Geological Society
    Volume173
    Issue number1
    Early online date10 Nov 2015
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 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

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