Exceptional Preservation of Fossils in an Upper Proterozoic Shale
| Title: | Exceptional Preservation of Fossils in an Upper Proterozoic Shale |
| Author: |
Swett, Keene; Butterfield, Nicholas J.; Knoll, Andrew
Note: Order does not necessarily reflect citation order of authors. |
| Citation: | Butterfield, Nicholas J., Andrew H. Knoll, and Keene Swett. 1988. Exceptional preservation of fossils in an Upper Proterozoic shale. Nature 334(6181): 424-427. |
| Access Status: | At the direction of the depositing author this work is not currently accessible through DASH. |
| Full Text & Related Files: |
Knoll_ExceptionalPreservation.pdf (606.5Kb; PDF) 
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| Abstract: | Late Proterozoic organisms must have been diverse and widely distributed, but in general their fossil record is both taxonomically and environmentally limited. Exceptional preservation of Proterozoic fossils is not unknown, but it is usually associated with silicified carbonates from restricted peritidal or playa lake environments. We report here an exceptionally well preserved and distinctive assemblage of Lake Proterozoic fossils from subtidal marine shales. In additional to the sphaeromorphic acritarchs and cyanobacterial sheaths routinely preserved in Proterozoic rocks, this assemblage includes multicellular algae ('seaweeds'), a diverse assortment of morphologically complex protistan vesicles, and probable heterotrophic bacteria. Thus, it provides one of the clearest and most taxonomically varied views of Proterozoic life yet reported. |
| Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/334424a0 |
| Citable link to this page: | http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3200258 |
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FAS Scholarly Articles [5133]
Peer reviewed scholarly articles from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University
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