A New ?lamellipedian arthropod from the Early Cambrian Sirius Passet Fauna of North Greenland

2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 820-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Lagebro ◽  
Martin Stein ◽  
John S. Peel
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Soft Tissues ◽  
Early Cambrian ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
Geological Setting ◽  
North Greenland

The Non-Mineralized arthropod described herein is derived from the Sirius Passet fossil conservation deposit of North Greenland (82°47.6,N, 42°13.7ʹW), the oldest locality with exceptional preservation of soft tissues known from the Cambrian of Laurentia (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 3; Nevadella Zone). As such, it is broadly contemporaneous with the Chengjiang fauna of China (Hou et al., 2004) and some 10 million years older than the Burgess Shale fauna of British Columbia. The Sirius Passet fauna was first documented by Conway Morris et al. (1987) and its geological setting is discussed by Babcock and Peel (2007). In addition to the nevadiid trilobite Buenellus higginsi Blaker, 1988, the fauna is dominated by non-mineralized arthropods (Budd, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999; Williams et al., 1996; Taylor, 2002). Other finds include sponges (Rigby, 1986), a lobopod (Budd and Peel, 1998), the earliest annelids (Conway Morris and Peel, 2008) and articulated halkieriids (Conway Morris and Peel, 1990, 1995), but most of the assemblage awaits description.

Geological and depositional setting of the Sirius Passet Lagerstätte (Early Cambrian), North Greenland

2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 1259-1281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon R. Ineson ◽  
John S. Peel
Keyword(s):  
Soft Tissues ◽  
Carbonate Platform ◽  
Tectonic Setting ◽  
Outer Edge ◽  
Early Cambrian ◽  
Carbonate Platforms ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
Marine Mud ◽  
Depositional Setting ◽  
North Greenland

The Early Cambrian Sirius Passet Lagerstätte of North Greenland occurs in marine mudstones (Buen Formation) deposited in a slope environment along the eroded scarp of a pre-existing carbonate platform. The shallow-water platform is represented by dolostones of the Portfjeld Formation (Neoproterozoic – earliest Cambrian), which record a belt of tide-swept subtidal ooid shoals and microbial patch reefs at the outer edge of the platform. Solution features and meteoric cements attest to exposure of the platform, accompanied by fracturing, mass wastage and erosional retreat of the escarpment producing slope talus, and extensive debris sheets and olistoliths in basinal deposits. The marine mud-dominated siliciclastics of the Buen Formation, deposited in slope and shelf environments, record the transgression and onlap of the degraded platform in the Early Cambrian. The Sirius Passet Lagerstätte has yielded an arthropod-dominated fossil assemblage of over 40 species, many showing exceptional preservation of soft tissues; the finely laminated mudstones hosting this fauna accumulated from suspension in a poorly oxygenated slope sub-environment, such as an erosional embayment or abandoned slope gully. Although taphonomic features suggest that the fauna is mainly parautochthonous, some components (e.g., sponges, worms, the halkieriids and certain sightless arthropods) may be truly autochthonous. Comparison of the Sirius Passet locality with the renowned Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of western Canada reveals similarities in overall depositional and tectonic setting: both accumulated in deep water adjacent to the steep, eroded margins of carbonate platforms — settings that subsequently sheltered the faunas from tectonic and metamorphic obliteration.

scholarly journals Presence of Naraoia Walcott, 1912 (Nektaspida, Arthropoda) in the middle Cambrian of Europe (Murero, NE Spain)

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Rodolfo Gozalo ◽  
Mª Eugenia Dies-Álvarez ◽  
José Antonio Gámez VIintaned ◽  
Juan B. Chirivella ◽  
Eladio Liñan
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
First Record ◽  
Early Cambrian ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Evolutionary Potential ◽  
Middle Cambrian ◽  
The Family ◽  
Ne Spain

 The genus Naraoia Walcott, 1912, a Burgess Shale-type fossil known from the lower and middle Cambrian of British Columbia (Canada), Idaho and Utah (USA), as well as from Yunnan and Guizhou provinces (China), is now reported from the middle Cambrian of Murero (Zaragoza, Spain), which is the first record in the Acadobaltic province. The only fragmented specimen found is determined as Naraoia sp., its age being Pardailhania multispinosa Zone (Drumian Stage). This new datum reinforces the hypothesis of the existence of a cosmopolitan faunal substrate in early Cambrian times, which is to some extent refl ected in the mid Cambrian by faunal groups of low evolutionary potential as the family Naraoiidae and other soft-bodied fossil taxa.

A new arthropod Pygmaclypeatus daziensis from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte, South China

2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 979-982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingliang Zhang ◽  
Jian Han ◽  
Degan Shu
Keyword(s):  
South China ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Early Cambrian ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
Chengjiang Lagerstätte ◽  
Early Metazoan ◽  
North Greenland

The early Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstatte, generally regarded as late Atdabanian (Qian and Bengtson, 1989; Bengtson et al., 1990), has become celebrated for perhaps the earliest biota of soft-bodied organisms known from the fossil record and has proven to be critical to our understanding of early metazoan evolution. The Sirius Passet fauna from Peary Land, North Greenland, another important repository of soft-bodied and poorly sclerotized fossils, was also claimed as Early Cambrian (Conway Morris et al., 1987; Budd, 1995). The exact stratigraphic position of the Sirius Passet fauna (Buen Formation) is still uncertain, although the possibility of late Atdabanian age was proposed (Vidal and Peel, 1993). Recent work dates it in the “Nevadella” Biozone (Budd and Peel, 1998). It therefore appears to be simultaneous with or perhaps slightly younger than Chengjiang Lagerstatte, Eoredlichia Biozone (Zhuravlev, 1995). The Emu Bay Shale of Kangaroo Island, South Australia, has long been famous as a source of magnificent specimens of the trilobites Redlichia takooensis and Hsunaspis bilobata. It is additionally important as the only site in Australia so far to yield a Burgess-Shale-type biota (Glaessner, 1979; Nedin, 1992). The Emu Bay Shale was considered late Early Cambrian in age (Daily, 1956; Öpik, 1975). But Zhang et al.(1980) reassessed its age based on data from the Chinese Early Cambrian. The occurrence of Redlichia takooensis and closely related species of Hsunaspis indicates an equivalence to the Tsanglangpuian in the Chinese sequence, and the contemporary South Australia fauna correlate with the Botomian of Siberia (Bengtson et al., 1990). Thus the Emu Bay Shale is younger than the upper Atdabanian Chengjiang Lagerstatte, Chiungchussuian.

Macroscopic carbonaceous compressions in a terminal Proterozoic shale: A systematic reassessment of the Miaohe biota, south China

2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuhai Xiao ◽  
Xunlai Yuan ◽  
Michael Steiner ◽  
Andrew H. Knoll
Keyword(s):  
Green Algae ◽  
South China ◽  
Brown Algae ◽  
Body Plan ◽  
Early Cambrian ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
New Materials ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Late Neoproterozoic

Carbonaceous compression fossils in shales of the uppermost Doushantuo Formation (ca. 555-590 Ma) at Miaohe in the Yangtze Gorges area provide a rare Burgess-Shale-type taphonomic window on terminal Proterozoic biology. More than 100 macrofossil species have been described from Miaohe shales, but in an examination of published and new materials, we recognize only about twenty distinct taxa, including Aggregatosphaera miaoheensis new gen. and sp. Most of these fossils can be interpreted unambiguously as colonial prokaryotes or multicellular algae. Phylogenetically derived coenocytic green algae appear to be present, as do regularly bifurcating thalli comparable to red and brown algae. At least five species have been interpreted as metazoans by previous workers. Of these, Protoconites minor and Calyptrina striata most closely resemble animal remains; either or both could be the organic sheaths of cnidarian scyphopolyps, although an algal origin cannot be ruled out for P. minor. Despite exceptional preservation, the Miaohe assemblage contains no macroscopic fossils that can be interpreted with confidence as bilaterian animals. In combination with other late Neoproterozoic and Early Cambrian body fossils and trace fossils, the Doushantuo assemblage supports the view that body-plan diversification within bilaterian phyla was largely a Cambrian event.

scholarly journals Acritarchs from the Buen Formation (Lower Cambrian), North Greenland

1988 ◽  
Vol 137 ◽  
pp. 54-54
Author(s):  
G Vidal ◽  
J.S Peel
Keyword(s):  
Lower Cambrian ◽  
Trace Fossils ◽  
Early Cambrian ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Middle Cambrian ◽  
Siliciclastic Sediments ◽  
North Greenland

Siliciclastic sediments of the Buen Formation of North Greenland yield the earliest Cambrian fossils known from North Greenland, with the exception of cyanobacteria described from dolomites of the underlying Portfjeld Formation (see Peel, this report). The fauna is dominated by olenellid and nevadiid trilobites indicating an Early Cambrian age (Poulsen, 1974; Blaker, this report) but hyolithids, bradoriids, sponges and other fossils also occur. Bergstrom & Peel (this report) described trace fossils from the Buen Formation. Of particular interest is the recent discovery of lightly skeletised arthropods comprising an assemblage similar to that of the Middle Cambrian Burgess shale of Canada (Conway Morris et al., 1987).

scholarly journals On the edge of exceptional preservation: insights into the role of redox state in Burgess Shale-type taphonomic windows from the Mural Formation, Alberta, Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik A. Sperling ◽  
Uwe Balthasar ◽  
Christian B. Skovsted
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Iron Reduction ◽  
Redox State ◽  
Soft Tissues ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Early Paleozoic ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Anoxic Conditions ◽  
Exceptional Preservation

Animals originated in the Neoproterozoic and ‘exploded’ into the fossil record in the Cambrian. The Cambrian also represents a high point in the animal fossil record for the preservation of soft tissues that are normally degraded. Specifically, fossils from Burgess Shale-type (BST) preservational windows give paleontologists an unparalleled view into early animal evolution. Why this time interval hosts such exceptional preservation, and why this preservational window declines in the early Paleozoic, have been long-standing questions. Anoxic conditions have been hypothesized to play a role in BST preservation, but recent geochemical investigations of these deposits have reached contradictory results with respect to the redox state of overlying bottom waters. Here, we report a multi-proxy geochemical study of the Lower Cambrian Mural Formation, Alberta, Canada. At the type section, the Mural Formation preserves rare recalcitrant organic tissues in shales that were deposited near storm wave base (a Tier 3 deposit; the worst level of soft-tissue preservation). The geochemical signature of this section shows little to no evidence of anoxic conditions, in contrast with published multi-proxy studies of more celebrated Tier 1 and 2 deposits. These data help confirm that ‘decay-limited’ BST biotas were deposited in more oxygenated conditions, and support a role for anoxic conditions in BST preservation. Finally, we discuss the role of iron reduction in BST preservation, including the formation of iron-rich clays and inducement of sealing seafloor carbonate cements. As oceans and sediment columns became more oxygenated and more sulfidic through the early Paleozoic, these geochemical changes may have helped close the BST taphonomic window.

scholarly journals The Sirius Passet Fauna, an Early Cambrian Lagerstätte from North Greenland

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 233-233
Author(s):  
John S. Peel ◽  
Simon Conway Morris ◽  
Jon R. Ineson
Keyword(s):  
Carbonate Platform ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Early Cambrian ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Generic Level ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
North American Continent ◽  
The North ◽  
Platform Carbonates ◽  
North Greenland

The Sirius Passet Fauna of North Greenland is one of the oldest Cambrian lagerstätten from the North American continent. It is known from a single locality in Peary Land (83°N, 40°W), on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, where outer shelf mudstones from the lower part of the Buen Formation (Early Cambrian) yield a rich assemblage of mainly poorly skeletised organisms with preserved soft parts. The steeply-dipping fossiliferous mudstones occur in close proximity to horizontally-bedded platform carbonates of the underlying Portfjeld Formation (Early Cambrian) in a structurally complex terrane. The boundary between the fossiliferous mudstones and the platform carbonates apparently defines the original northern margin of the carbonate platform and is not, as previously suggested, a structural feature, although some minor tectonic modification can not be excluded. Thus, the fossiliferous mudstones were apparently deposited in a transitional slope setting basinward of the shelf edge.As currently known, the Sirius Passet Fauna comprises about 40 species, based on a collection of almost 5,000 slabs collected during brief visits to the isolated locality in 1989 and 1991. Arthropods dominate, with bivalved bradoriids and the trilobite Buenellus higginsi Blaker, 1988 being the numerically most abundant taxa. Weakly skeletised Naraoia-like and Sidneyia-like arthropods often preserve limbs and gills, as do bivalved arthropods similar to Waptia. Choia is the most common of several sponges. Worms include both priapulids and polychaetes, with a large palaeoscolecidan being conspicuous.Fully articulated specimens of halkieriid worms, clad in an armour of hundreds of individual sclerites, are most notable amongst several problematic taxa. Rare specimens of possible onychophorans are also present, while brachiopods, hyoliths and other shelly fossils are rare or absent.The Sirius Passet Fauna seems to show little taxonomic similarity to the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of western Canada or the Chengjiang Fauna from the Lower Cambrian of China at the generic level. Together with the latter fauna, however, it confirms both the general picture of Cambrian life presented by the Burgess Shale, and the existence of this great diversity of weakly skeletised arthropods already in the Early Cambrian.

Cambrian Lagerstätten: their distribution and significance

1985 ◽  
Vol 311 (1148) ◽  
pp. 49-65 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Community Ecology ◽  
Lower Cambrian ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Middle Cambrian ◽  
Upper Cambrian ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
Biotic Diversity

The geological setting, biotic diversity and taphonomy of Cambrian soft-bodied Lagerstätten are reviewed with special reference to the Lower Cambrian Emu Bay Shale (South Australia) and Kinzers Formation (Pennsylvania), and the Middle Cambrian Stephen Formation (Burgess Shale and adjacent localities, British Columbia). Brief mention is made also of a number of more minor occurrences in the U.S.A., China and Spain. Exceptional preservation in the Upper Cambrian is discussed by K. J. Müller (this symposium). These soft-bodied Lagerstätten afford a series of special insights into the nature of Cambrian life. Emphasis is laid on the information they provide with regards (i) levels of diversity and the proportion of skeletized taxa; (ii) the origin and relative success of bodyplans; (iii) community ecology and evolution.

scholarly journals The Burgess Shale paleocommunity with new insights from Marble Canyon, British Columbia

Paleobiology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karma Nanglu ◽  
Jean-Bernard Caron ◽  
Robert R. Gaines
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
National Park ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Species Level ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Ecological Groups ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Temporal Scales ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Exceptional Preservation

AbstractThe middle (Wuliuan Stage) Cambrian Burgess Shale is famous for its exceptional preservation of diverse and abundant soft-bodied animals through the “thick” Stephen Formation. However, with the exception of the Walcott Quarry (Fossil Ridge) and the stratigraphically older Tulip Beds (Mount Stephen), which are both in Yoho National Park (British Columbia), quantitative assessments of the Burgess Shale have remained limited. Here we first provide a detailed quantitative overview of the diversity and structure of the Marble Canyon Burgess Shale locality based on 16,438 specimens. Located 40 km southeast of the Walcott Quarry in Kootenay National Park (British Columbia), Marble Canyon represents the youngest site of the “thick” Stephen Formation. We then combine paleoecological data sets from Marble Canyon, Walcott Quarry, Tulip Beds, and Raymond Quarry, which lies approximately 20 m directly above the Walcott Quarry, to yield a combined species abundance data set of 77,179 specimens encompassing 234 species-level taxa. Marble Canyon shows significant temporal changes in both taxonomic and ecological groups, suggesting periods of stasis followed by rapid turnover patterns at local and short temporal scales. At wider geographic and temporal scales, the different Burgess Shale sites occupy distinct areas in multivariate space. Overall, this suggests that the Burgess Shale paleocommunity is far patchier than previously thought and varies at both local and regional scales through the “thick” Stephen Formation. This underscores that our understanding of Cambrian diversity and ecological networks, particularly in early animal ecosystems, remains limited and highly dependent on new discoveries.

scholarly journals Metamorphism obscures primary taphonomic pathways in the early Cambrian Sirius Passet Lagerstätte, North Greenland

Geology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Lunde Nielsen ◽  
Mirinae Lee ◽  
Hong Chin Ng ◽  
Jeremy C. Rushton ◽  
Katharine R. Hendry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Stage ◽  
Soft Tissues ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
New Mineral ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Early Cambrian ◽  
Widespread Occurrence ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Fossil Preservation ◽  
North Greenland

Correct interpretation of soft-bodied fossils relies on a thorough understanding of their taphonomy. While the focus has often been on the primary roles of decay and early diagenesis, the impacts of deeper burial and metamorphism on fossil preservation are less well understood. We document a sequence of late-stage mineral replacements in panarthropod fossils from the Sirius Passet Lagerstätte (North Greenland), an important early Cambrian Burgess Shale–type (BST) biota. Muscle and gut diverticula were initially stabilized by early diagenetic apatite, prior to being pervasively replaced by quartz and then subordinate chlorite, muscovite, and chloritoid during very low- to low-grade metamorphism. Each new mineral replicates the soft tissues with different precision and occurs in particular anatomical regions, imposing strong biases on the biological information retained. Muscovite and chloritoid largely obliterate the tissues’ original detail, suggesting that aluminum-rich protoliths may have least potential for conserving mineralized soft tissues in metamorphism. Overall, the fossils exhibit a marked shift toward mineralogical equilibration with the matrix, obscuring primary taphonomic modes. Sequential replacement of the phosphatized soft tissues released phosphorus to form new accessory monazite (and apatite and xenotime), whose presence in other BST biotas might signal the prior, more widespread, occurrence of this primary mode of preservation. Our results provide critical context for interpreting the Sirius Passet biota and for identifying late-stage overprints in other biotas.

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