Assessing the Paleoecology and Taphonomy of the New Early Jurassic Ya Ha Tinda Lagerst?tte (Canada) and the Significance of the Toarcian Ocean Anoxic Event

海洋生物群落永远不会完美地存在于岩石中，因为脆弱的生物和那些没有坚硬部分的生物很少被保存下来。加拿大阿尔伯塔省亚哈廷达是新发现的特殊化石矿床，软组织保存非常完好。这是来自北美侏罗纪岩石(2.01亿至1.45亿年前)的第一次此类数据，将产生关于当时生活在该地区的海洋群落的重要新生态数据，并将产生有关软组织化石如何保存的基本信息。这个矿床形成于侏罗纪海洋缺氧事件期间，这是一个由环境变化引起的重大灭绝时期，可能与预测的未来条件相似。Ya Ha Tinda的研究将提供有关这一全球事件对海洋群落的影响的重要新信息。这项工作的结果将通过实地博客、讲座、互动博览会和机构外展计划与公众分享。标本将被纳入皇家泰雷尔古生物博物馆的博物馆展品，并通过德克萨斯大学奥斯汀非脊椎动物古生物学实验室进行虚拟展示。此外，还将为8年级的理科班开发一个关于灭绝事件的动手教学模块，为视障人士提供材料。这个项目的主要目标是：1)评估雅哈廷达的动物群组成、灭绝和恢复动力学；2)将这些数据与欧洲的同时代沉积物进行比较；3)建立一个雅哈廷达软组织保存的模型；以及4)确定海洋缺氧事件是否推动或促进了保存。该项目将整合对牙哈廷达化石的古生物学、沉积学和地球化学研究，并将数据与来自相同年龄的黑色页岩矿床的欧洲标本进行比较，以提供关于这一全球缺氧事件的独特视角。化石将在一种新设计的基于扫描电子显微镜的仪器上进行显微镜和分析地球化学分析，该仪器可以对超大的3D样本进行定量分析。

Marine biotic communities are never perfectly fossilized in rocks because delicate organisms and those without hard parts are rarely preserved. Ya Ha Tinda in Alberta, Canada, is a newly discovered exceptional fossil deposit with extraordinary preservation of soft tissues. It is the first of its kind from North American Jurassic rocks (201 to 145 million years ago) and will generate significant new ecological data about the marine communities that lived in this region at this time and also will yield essential information about how soft tissue fossils are preserved. This deposit formed during the Jurassic Oceanic Anoxic Event, a period of significant extinctions caused by environmental changes which might be similar to predicted future conditions. The Ya Ha Tinda study will provide vital new information about the influence of this global event on ocean communities. Results of this work will be shared with the public through field blogs, lectures, interactive fairs, and institutional outreach programs. Specimens will be included in museum exhibits at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and as a virtual display through the UT Austin Non Vertebrate Paleontology Lab. Additionally, a hands-on teaching module on extinction events will be developed for an 8th grade science class with material for the visually impaired. The chief goals of this project are to: 1) assess the Ya Ha Tinda faunal composition, extinction, and recovery dynamics; 2) compare these data with coeval deposits from Europe; 3) develop a model for soft tissue preservation at Ya Ha Tinda; and 4) determine if preservation was driven or enhanced by the Oceanic Anoxic Event. The project will integrate paleontological, sedimentological, and geochemical research on the Ya Ha Tinda fossils and compare the data with European specimens from black shale deposits of the same age to provide a unique perspective on this global anoxic event. Fossils will be analyzed with microscopy and analytical geochemistry on a newly-designed scanning electron microscopy-based instrument, which allows oversized, 3D samples to be quantitatively analyzed.