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

1999年，罗兰·E·巴布科克在内华达州埃斯梅拉达县的野外勘察工作发现了一个新的下寒武统布尔吉斯页岩型矿床。新沉积物中含有多种生物，其保存质量与著名的伯吉斯页岩(不列颠哥伦比亚省中寒武系)和澄江拉格斯塔特页岩(云南下寒武统中国)中的生物相似。这个新矿点很重要，因为它是北美已知的最古老的伯吉斯页岩型矿床，也是全球最古老的页岩型矿床之一。建议对内华达州西部遗址进行探索性调查，以便在公众意识到它的存在之前确保可供科学使用的化石。这项工作的主要目的是：1，调查新址的古生物潜力；2，对生物群形成化石的古环境环境(沉积和埋藏学)进行初步研究；3，准确评估新址的年龄。预计这个新的矿床将为我们理解卡比亚大爆炸，特别是北美-格陵兰古大陆记录的这一事件的早期化石记录增加重要的新信息。

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.