PALEONTOLOGY - BRIEF

Lagerstatten

Sites with abundant supply of unusually well-preserved fossils - often including soft tissues - from the same period of time

Konservat- Lagerstatten

Are deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces

Intertidal Zone

also known as the "littoral zone"

Paleontology

Study of fossils, their interaction and evolution in geologic time.

Fossils

Are the preserved remains or traces of living things that existed in the past.

Body Fossils

Hard parts of an organism, such as bone, teeth or shells, that has been preserved into a fossil

Trace Fossils

A type of fossil that provides evidence of the activities of ancient organisms

Ichnology

The study of trace fossils

also known as trace fossils

what are ichnofossils

Cubichnia
Fodichnia
Pasichnia
Repichnia
Domichnia

These are types of Trace Fossils

Cubichnia - Resting Traces
Fodichnia - Food Traces
Pasichnia - Grazing Traces
Repichnia - Grazing Traces
Domichnia - Dwelling Traces

At least 10,000 years
Hard Parts
Buried below finer sediments rather than coarser sediments
Presence of "highly mineralized" water
Anoxic Environment

Favorable Conditions for Fossilization

Index Fossils

Distinctive fossils used to establish and compare the relative ages of rock layers and the fossils they contain.

Reworked Fossils

Fossils that have been freed from their host rock by weathering and erosion and then reworked into younger beds. Younger strata might be mistakenly assigned to an older geologic time.

Abundant
Widespread
Short-lived

What are the distinctive characteristics of an index fossil?

Permineralization

The process by which mineral crystals replace the original living tissue of a fossil.

Silicification

The replacement of original hard parts by Silica (SiO2)

Calcification

The replacement of original hard parts by Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3)

Pyritification

The replacement of original hard parts by Iron (Fe)

Freezing

Preservation type that includes freezing

Mummification

Preservation type that includes the removal of moisture in a deceased organism or by deccication.

Mold and Cast

Fossils that form in sedimentary rock, later a hollow model becomes filled with minerals

Mold

The impression of an organism in a rock

Cast

A type of fossil that forms when a mold becomes filled in with minerals that then harden.

Petrification

The process by which organic matter exposed to minerals over a long period is turned into a stony substance.

Amber Preservation

Process that takes thousands of years where organisms (often insects) become trapped in tree sap that hardens into a mineral rock called amber.

Tar Preservation

When an animal becomes trapped in naturally-occurring tar or paraffin, its whole body can be preserved. While paraffin and other waxes can preserve an animal's soft tissue, substances like tar preserve only hard parts.

Konzentrat-Lagerstatten
Konservat- Lagerstatten

2 types of Lagerstatten

Konzentrat-Lagerstatten

Concentration of fossils accumulated over period of time that represent a community of organisms

Burgess Shale (British Columbia)
Solnhofen Limestone (Southern Australia)
Idiacara Hills (Bavaria, Germany)
Mazon Creek (Illinois, USA)
Green River Formation (Wyoming, USA)
Rancho La Brea Tar Pit (California, USA)

Name the some of the prominent lagerstatten

Burgess Shale
British Columbia

A fossil-bearing deposit exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of biota.

Solnhofen Limestone
Southern Australia

A lagerstatten that contained the fossil of the feathered bird dinosaur named Archeopteryx.

Green River Formation

This lagerstatten is known for its fossil fishes and fossil assemblage of the "tree of life"

Pelagic Realm
Benthic Realm

What are the two major marine realms?

Pelagic Realm

Refers to the water mass above the ocean floor.

Benthic Realm

A marine realm that refers to the bottom of the ocean floor.

Planktonic

What mode of marine life is present in pelagic realm?

Benthic

What mode of marine life is present in benthic realm?

Planktonic

These marine species are called "floaters"

Nektonic

These marine species are called "swimmers"

Benthic

These marine species are called "bottom dwellers"

Supratidal Zone

The area above high tide line.

Intertidal Zone

The area between low tide and high tide line.

Subtidal Zone

The area from low tide line to the edge of the continental shelf

Subtidal Zone

also known as the "sublittoral zone"

Hadal Zone

The environment that consitutes the extreme depths in oceanic trenches.

Challenger Deep

The deepest known point of the seabed of Earth, located in the western Pacific Ocean at the southern end of the Mariana Trench.

Carbon Compensation Depth

The depth below which calcium carbonate becomes unstable and dissolves