Eramosa Lagerstätte—Exceptionally preserved soft-bodied biotas with shallow-marine shelly and bioturbating organisms (Silurian, Ontario, Canada)

Abstract

The middle Silurian Eramosa Lagerstätte of Ontario, Canada, preserves taxonomically and taphonomically diverse biotas including articulated conodont skeletons and hetero stracan fi sh, annelids and arthropods with soft body parts, and a diverse marine fl ora. Soft tissues are preserved as calcium phosphate and carbon fi lms, the latter possibly stabilized by early diagenetic sulfurization. It is signifi cant that the biotas also include a decalcifi ed, autochthonous shelly marine fauna, and trace fossils. This association of exceptionally preserved and more typical fossils distinguishes the Eramosa from other Silurian shallow-marine Lagerstätten, such as the Waukesha Lagerstätte, and suggests that the Eramosa is not the product of exceptional preservation in an atypical environment, a bias claimed for many post-Cambrian Lagerstätten. The Eramosa Lagerstätte may provide a more reliable, balanced measure of what has been lost from the Silurian fossil record.

Ontogeny and reproductive functional morphology of the macroalgaWiartonella nodiferan. gen. n. sp. (Dasycladales, Chlorophyta) from the Silurian Eramosa Lagerstätte of Ontario, Canada

“…The macroalgal taxon described herein belongs to Biota 3 of that report, located in a quarry operated by Owen Sound Ledgerock Ltd. near Wiarton (locality D of von Bitter et al, 2007). All specimens of the new taxon occupy bedding plane surfaces of large blocks removed from the lowermost part of a small pit on the northeasternmost part of the quarry property, north of Oliphant Road.…”

“…In an overview of the Eramosa Lagerstätte provided by von Bitter et al (2007), three biotas were recognized, each known only from a single limited geographic area in the southern part of the Bruce Peninsula. The macroalgal taxon described herein belongs to Biota 3 of that report, located in a quarry operated by Owen Sound Ledgerock Ltd. near Wiarton (locality D of von Bitter et al, 2007).…”

Humans as major geological and geomorphological agents in the Anthropocene: the significance of artificial ground in Great Britain

“…However, it should be noted that, when appropriate conditions prevail, the geological record has the potential to capture traces of fleeting events [66,67] and remarkably delicate lifeforms [68,69]. Traces of anthropogenic activity dated to 3649 ± 109 BP comprising footprints and trackway infrastructure have been preserved on the coast of NW England [70], for example.…”

An exceptionally preserved myodocopid ostracod from the Silurian of Herefordshire, UK

“…425 Myr BP) and is one of only some four major Konservat-Lagerstätte known from the Silurian (Briggs et al 1996;von Bitter et al 2007). Since its discovery in the 1990s, it has yielded a wide range of exquisitely preserved three-dimensional invertebrate fossils from a few millimetres to several centimetres in dimension (Briggs et al 2008).…”