Deconstructing Biases in the Fossil Record of the Oldest Animals: Experimental and Geochemical Studies in Soft-Tissue Preservation

化石记录是反复无常和有偏见的。保存软体生物的地点，与典型的骨骼、牙齿和贝壳化石组合相反，是极其罕见的，而且是真正的例外（Konservat-Lagerstätten of Seilacher, 1970）。Lagerstätten代表了灭绝物种最丰富的解剖学信息来源，提供了更完整的关于深时间多样性模式的观点，并最终打开了一扇窗户，进入古代生态系统的运作，通常只有生物学家才能研究现代系统。然而，越来越多的人认识到Lagerstätten充满了保存偏见，迫切需要系统的表征。例如，Lagerstätten在地质年代中分布不均匀，通常局限于特定的环境设置，并且优先保存某些组织类型（Allison和Briggs, 1993； Schiffbauer和Laflamme， 2012）。研究控制化石保存（埋藏学）速度和模式的物理、化学和生物因素的跨学科研究，为化石记录的内容和准确性提供了重要的新视角，是正确识别生命进化趋势的必要的第一步。我的长期研究目标是阐明导致石化的埋藏学途径，并确定使化石记录偏斜的物理、化学和生物控制。

The fossil record is fickle and biased. Sites that preserve soft-bodied organisms, as opposed to typical fossil assemblages of bones, teeth, and shells, are exceedingly rare and truly exceptional (Konservat-Lagerstätten of Seilacher, 1970). Lagerstätten represent the richest source of anatomical information for extinct species, offer more complete views of diversity patterns in deep time, and ultimately open a window into the workings of ancient ecosystems typically afforded only to biologists studying modern systems. However, there is a growing recognition that Lagerstätten are fraught with preservational biases, which are in urgent need of systematic characterization. For instance, Lagerstätten are unevenly distributed through geological time, are typically restricted to specific environmental settings, and preferentially preserve certain tissue types over others (Allison and Briggs, 1993; Schiffbauer and Laflamme, 2012). Interdisciplinary studies that examine the physical, chemical, and biological factors controlling the tempos and modes of fossil preservation (taphonomy) are offering critical new perspectives on the content and accuracy of the fossil record, and are a necessary first step in correctly identifying trends in the evolution of life. My long-term research objective is to elucidate the taphonomic pathways responsible for fossilization, and to identify physical, chemical, and biological controls biasing the fossil record.