(SGER) Paleobiology and Paleoenvironmental Circumstances of Early Cambrian Burgess Shale-Type Deposit, Nevada

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0073089Loren E. BabcockReconnaissance field work in Esmeralda County, Nevada, during 1999 resulted in the discovery of a new Lower Cambrian Burgess Shale-type deposit. The new deposit contains a variety of organisms similar in preservational quality to those from the celebrated Burgess Shale (Middle Cambrian of British Columbia) and the Chengjiang Lagerstatte (Lower Cambrian of Yunnan, China). The new site is of importance because it is the oldest Burgess Shale-type deposit known from North America, and one of the oldest such deposits globally. Exploratory investigation of the western Nevada site is proposed in order to secure available fossils for science before the public becomes aware of its existence. The primary purposes of this work are: 1, to investigate the paleontological potential of the new locality; 2, to conduct preliminary studies on the paleoenvironmental circumstances (both depositional and taphonomic) under which the biota was fossilized; and 3, to accurately assess the age of the new site. The new deposit is expected to add important new information to our understanding of the "Cambian explosion," and particularly the early fossil record of the event as recorded in the North America-Greenland paleocontinent.