PhD: Interpreting Small Carbonaceous Fossil Assemblages: Calibration from Burgess Shale-type deposits

The mid-Cambrian Burgess Shale is justly renowned for its exquisite preservation of early animal communities. Nevertheless, the restricted distribution of this preservational mode curtails the ability of Burgess Shale-type deposits to reconstruct the evolutionary processes of the Cambrian explosion.

In contrast, Small Carbonaceous Fossils (SCFs – the microscopic counterparts of Burgess Shale-type fossils) occur widely in both space and time, and thus have untapped potential to illuminate the evolution and establishment of early animal communities. Biological interpretation of SCF assemblages is nevertheless hampered by a limited understanding of the taphonomic filters that contribute to SCF preservation (and non-preservation).

This project will examine the suites of SCFs associated with well-documented Burgess Shale assemblages in order to explore the taphonomic filters involved in the fossilization of carbonaceous films at both microscopic and macroscopic scales. This understanding will undergird novel approaches to account for possible biases in fossil preservation, establishing the full significance of SCF assemblages for early animal evolution.