Mechanisms and Rates of Preservation of Organic and Skeletal Remains in Continental Shelf and Slope Environments

陆架和斜坡环境中有机和骨骼遗骸的保存机制和速度Karla Parsons-HubbardEAR-9909317化石组合解释的主要障碍是对化石组合中的偏见认识不足，这是(A)由于原始生物组合的分类改变和(B)对时间上不同的动物群的时间平均造成的。为了更好地了解这些挖掘过程，1993年和1994年在深海环境的各种沉积环境中进行了实验。这些实验包括各种潜在的可保存生物，如双壳类、腹足类、海胆、螃蟹和植物物种。自部署以来，这些材料一直被允许在海底腐烂。在所有地点进行了两年后的收集，并对早期的耕作签名进行了评估。目前的工作包括收集第8年的实验。初步结果表明，这是软体动物遗骸的关键时期，特别是在光带内的水域。钻探生物的溶解和降解已经取得了进展，这项研究的结果可能能够将浅水中软体动物遗骸的“寿命”设定在7到10年之间，而在更深的水域，我们可能会发现降解速度要慢得多。

Mechanisms and Rates of Preservation of Organic and Skeletal remains inContinental Shelf and Slope EnvironmentsKarla Parsons-HubbardEAR-9909317A major impediment in the interpretation of fossil assemblages has been the inadequate understanding of the biases in it caused (a) by the taphonomic alteration of the original assemblage of living organisms and (b) by the time averaging of temporally distinct faunas. To better understand these taphonomic processes experiments were placed in a wide variety of environments of deposition in deep offshore settings in 1993 and 1994. The experiments consist of a variety of potentially preservable organisms such as bivalves, gastropods, urchins, crabs, and plant species. These materials have been allowed to decay on the sea floor since deployment. Collections were made after two years at all sites and the early taphonomic signature was assessed. The present work involves the collection of the experiments at year 8. Preliminary results show that this is a crucial time for the mollusk remains, particularly in waters within the photic zone. Dissolution and degradation by boring organisms have progressed to the point that the results from this work may be able to set the "life span" of mollusk remains in shallow waters at somewhere between 7 and 10 years and in deeper waters we may find much slower rates of degradation.