Lagerstätte

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Part of a series on
Paleontology
Palais de la Decouverte Tyrannosaurus rex p1050042.jpg
Fossils
Natural history
Organs and processes
Evolution of various taxa
Evolution
History of paleontology
Branches of paleontology
Paleontology Portal
Category
Fossil fish from the Green River Formation, an Eocene Lagerstätte
Diplacanthus acus, an exceptionally well preserved acanthodian fish (10 cm long) from the Late Devonian Waterloo Farm lagerstätte in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

A 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. 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 Devonian Hunsrück Slates and Gogo Formation, the Carboniferous Mazon Creek, the Jurassic Solnhofen limestone, the Cretaceous Santana, Yixian formations, the Eocene Green River Formation, and the Miocene Foulden Maar.

Types[edit]

Palaeontologists distinguish two kinds:[1]

  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 providing answers to 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[edit]

Stranded scyphozoans with the trackways Climactichnites from Blackberry Hill, Wisconsin (Cambrian). Scyphozoan in foreground is 10 cm (3.9 in) in diameter. Slab is in hyporelief.

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.[2] 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.[3]

A number of taphonomic pathways may produce Lagerstätten. The following is an incomplete list:

Important Konservat-Lagerstätten[edit]

See also: List of fossil sites

The world's major Lagerstätten include:

Precambrian
    Bitter Springs 1000–850 Mya South Australia
    Doushantuo Formation 600–555 Mya Guizhou Province, China
    Mistaken Point 565 Mya Newfoundland, Canada
    Ediacara Hills 550–545? Mya South Australia
Cambrian
    Qingjiang biota 518 Mya Hubei province, China
    Sirius Passet 518 Mya Greenland
    Maotianshan Shales (Chengjiang) 515 Mya Yunnan Province, China
    Emu Bay Shale 513 Mya South Australia
    Kaili Formation 513–501 Mya Guizhou province, south-west China
    Blackberry Hill ~510–500 Mya Central Wisconsin, US
    Burgess Shale 508 Mya British Columbia, Canada
    Wheeler Shale (House Range) 504 Mya Western Utah, US
    Marjum Formation 502 Mya Western Utah, US
    Weeks Formation 500 Mya Western Utah, US
    Kinnekulle Orsten and Alum Shale 500 Mya Sweden
Ordovician
    Fezouata Formation about 485 Mya Draa Valley, Morocco
    Douglas Dam Member 460 Mya Douglas Dam, Tennessee
    Beecher's Trilobite Bed 460? Mya New York, US
    Walcott-Rust Quarry about 455? Mya New York, US
    Soom Shale 450? Mya South Africa
Silurian
    Waukesha Biota ~435 Mya Southeastern Wisconsin, US
    Wenlock Series ~425 Mya Herefordshire, England, UK
Devonian
    Rhynie chert 400 Mya Scotland, UK
    Hunsrück Slates (Bundenbach) 390 Mya Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
    Gogo Formation 380 Mya (Frasnian) Western Australia
    Miguasha National Park 370 Mya Québec, Canada
    Canowindra, New South Wales 360 Mya Australia
    Waterloo Farm lagerstätte 360 Mya South Africa
Carboniferous
    Bear Gulch Limestone 320 Mya Montana, US
    Joggins Fossil Cliffs 315 Mya Nova Scotia, Canada
    Linton Diamond Coal Mine[4] 312 Mya Ohio, US
    Mazon Creek 310 Mya Illinois, US
    Montceau-les-Mines[5][6] 300 Mya France
    Hamilton Quarry 300 Mya Kansas, US
Permian
    Mangrullo Formation[7] about 285–275 Mya (Artinskian) Uruguay
Triassic
    Madygen Formation 230 Mya Kyrgyzstan
    Cow Branch Formation 230 Mya Virginia, US
    Ghost Ranch 205 Mya New Mexico, US
Jurassic
    Holzmaden/Posidonia Shale 183 Mya Württemberg, Germany
    Mesa Chelonia[8] 164.6 Mya Shanshan County, China
    La Voulte-sur-Rhône 160 Mya Ardèche, France
    Karabastau Formation 155.7 Mya Kazakhstan
    Tiaojishan Formation 165-153 Mya Liaoning Province, China
    Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry 150 Mya Utah, US
    Solnhofen Limestone 145 Mya Bavaria, Germany
    Canjuers Limestone 145 Mya France
    Agardhfjellet Formation 150-140 Mya Spitsbergen, Norway
Cretaceous
    Las Hoyas about 125 Mya (Barremian) Cuenca, Spain
    Yixian Formation about 125–121 Mya Liaoning, China
    Xiagou Formation about 120–115? Mya (mid-Apt.) Gansu, China
    Paja Formation 130-113 Mya Colombia
    Crato Formation about 117 Mya (Aptian) northeast Brazil
    Haqel/Hjoula/al-Nammoura about 95 Mya Lebanon
    Santana Formation 108–92 Mya Brazil
    Smoky Hill Chalk 87–82 Mya Kansas and Nebraska, US
    Ingersoll Shale 85 Mya Alabama, US
    Auca Mahuevo 80 Mya Patagonia, Argentina
    Zhucheng 66 Mya Shandong, China
    Tanis[9] 66 Mya North Dakota, US
Eocene
    Fur Formation 55–53 Mya Fur, Denmark
    London Clay 54–48 Mya England, UK
    McAbee Fossil Beds 52.9 ± 0.83 Mya British Columbia, Canada
    Green River Formation 50 Mya Colorado/Utah/Wyoming, US
    Klondike Mountain Formation 49.4 ± .5 Mya Washington, US
    Monte Bolca 49 Mya Italy
    Messel Oil Shale 49 Mya Hessen, Germany
    Quercy Phosphorites Formation[10] 25–45 Mya South-Western France
Oligocene–Miocene
    Dominican amber 30–10 Mya Dominican Republic
    Riversleigh 25–15 Mya Queensland, Australia
Miocene
    Foulden Maar 23 Mya Otago, New Zealand
    Chiapas amber 23-15 Mya Chiapas, Mexico[11]
    Clarkia fossil beds 20-17 Mya Idaho, US
    Barstow Formation 19–13.4 Mya California, US
    Shanwang Formation 18-17 Mya Shandong Province, China
    Ashfall Fossil Beds 11.83 Mya Nebraska, US
    Pisco Formation 15-2 Mya Arequipa & Ica, Peru
Pleistocene
    The Mammoth Site 26 Kya South Dakota, US
    Rancho La Brea Tar Pits 40–12 Kya California, US
    Waco Mammoth National Monument 65–51 Kya Texas, US
    El Breal de Orocual 2.5–1 Mya Monagas, Venezuela
    El Mene de Inciarte 25.5–28 Kya Zulia, Venezuela

See also[edit]

  • List of fossil sites (with link directory)
  • Hoard, a concentration of human artifacts useful for similar reasons in archaeology

References[edit]

  1. ^ The term was originally coined by Adolf Seilacher in: Seilacher, A. (1970). "Begriff und Bedeutung der Fossil-Lagerstätten: Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Paläontologie". Monatshefte (in German). 1970: 34–39.
  2. ^ Briggs et al. 1983; Aldridge et al. 1993.
  3. ^ Retallack, G. J. (2011). "Exceptional fossil preservation during CO2 greenhouse crises?". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 307 (1–4): 59–74. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.04.023.
  4. ^ "DIRECT EVIDENCE OF FOOD CHAINS AT THE LINTON LAGERSTATTE". gsa.confex.com.
  5. ^ Garwood, Russell J.; Sharma, Prashant P.; Dunlop, Jason A.; Giribet, Gonzalo (2014). "A Paleozoic Stem Group to Mite Harvestmen Revealed through Integration of Phylogenetics and Development". Current Biology. 24 (9): 1017–23. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.039. PMID 24726154. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  6. ^ Perrier, V.; Charbonnier, S. (2014). "The Montceau-les-Mines Lagerstätte (Late Carboniferous, France)". Comptes Rendus Palevol. 13 (5): 353–67. doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2014.03.002.
  7. ^ Piñeiro, G.; Ramos, A.; Goso, C. S.; Scarabino, F.; Laurin, M. (2012). "Unusual Environmental Conditions Preserve a Permian Mesosaur-Bearing Konservat-Lagerstätte from Uruguay". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 57 (2): 299–318. doi:10.4202/app.2010.0113.
  8. ^ Wings, Oliver; Rabi, Márton; Schneider, Jörg W.; Schwermann, Leonie; Sun, Ge; Zhou, Chang-Fu; Joyce, Walter G. (2012), "An enormous Jurassic turtle bone bed from the Turpan Basin of Xinjiang, China", Naturwissenschaften, 114 (11): 925–35, doi:10.1007/s00114-012-0974-5, PMID 23086389
  9. ^ DePalma, Robert; et al. (2 April 2019). "A seismically induced onshore surge deposit at the KPg boundary, North Dakota". PNAS. 116 (17): 8190–8199. doi:10.1073/pnas.1817407116. PMC 6486721. PMID 30936306.
  10. ^ Lalloy, F.; Rage, J. C.; Evans, S.E.; Boistel, R.; Lenoir, N.; Laurin, M. (2013). "A re-interpretation of the Eocene anuran Thaumastosaurus based on microCT examination of a 'mummified' specimen". PLoS ONE. 8 (9): 1–11. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0074874. PMC 3783478. PMID 24086389.
  11. ^ "Two Flat-Backed Polydesmidan Millipedes from the Miocene Chiapas-Amber Lagerstätte, Mexico".

Further reading[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lagerstätte&oldid=996735886"