A Burgess shale-like fauna from the Lower Cambrian of North Greenland
A Burgess shale-like fauna from the Lower Cambrian of North Greenland
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DOI：
10.1038/326181a0
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发表时间：
1987-03
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
S. Morris;John S. Peel;A. K. Higgins;N. J. Soper;N. C. Davis
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
S. Morris;John S. Peel;A. K. Higgins;N. J. Soper;N. C. Davis
寒武纪大爆发指的是显生代早期后生动物的主要适应性辐射，这一事件最为人所知的是前寒武纪-寒武纪界线(˜550Myr BP)附近突然出现坚硬部分。破译这一重要的进化事件在很大程度上取决于对这些骨骼遗骸的研究2，3以及包括洞穴和轨道4在内的遗迹化石4。这些后一类化石中的许多显然代表了软体生物的活动，如蠕虫和轻度硬化的节肢动物，其确切身份很少为人所知，尤其是因为它们只能在特殊情况下才能石化。然而，记录早期后生动物群落的软体代表是不能忽视的，如果他们在这些早期生物群中占了相当大的比例7。本文报道了格陵兰岛北部下寒武统一种新的软体动物。这一组合与年轻的伯吉斯页岩具有极大的相似性，并为这一动物群类型的地质寿命及其在寒武纪海洋更深水域的广泛分布提供了额外的证据。
The 'Cambrian explosion' refers to the major adaptive radiation of the metazoans during the earliest Phanerozoic, an event that is best known by the abrupt appearance of hard parts near to the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary (˜550 Myr BP)1. Deciphering this important evolutionary episode depends largely on the study of these skeletal remains2,3, together with trace fossils that include burrows and trackways4,5. Many of these latter fossils evidently represent the activities of soft-bodied organisms, such as worms and lightly sclerotized arthropods, whose exact identity is seldom known, not least because they can be fossilized only in exceptional circumstances6. However, documenting the soft-bodied representatives of early metazoan communities cannot be neglected if they accounted for a substantial fraction of these early biotas7. Here we report a new soft-bodied fauna from the Lower Cambrian of North Greenland. This assemblage has highly significant similarities with the younger Burgess Shale, and provides additional evidence for the geological longevity of this faunal type and its widespread distribution in deeper waters of Cambrian oceans.