Paleobiology and Taphonomy of Lower Cambrian Burgess Shale-Type Deposits of Nevada and Greenland

内华达州和格林兰多伦E.下寒武统Burgess页岩型矿床的古生物学和埋藏学本研究涉及来自内华达州西部和格陵兰北部的两个早寒武世伯吉斯页岩型生物化石的古生物学和埋藏学（死后历史）。 这两个来自劳伦特（北美-格陵兰）古大陆的双头龙，代表了世界上已知的两个最古老的保存完好的动物组合。 这些组合部分重叠的时间寒武纪适应辐射的多细胞动物。 它们为了解早寒武世的演化历史提供了重要的“窗口”，并应提供有关异常保存发生的条件的信息。 本工作的主要目的是：1、收集和记录新的内华达州地点的生物群，并继续记录格陵兰地点的生物群; 2、记录和解释内华达州和格陵兰地点的埋藏学信息; 3、描述和解释与身体化石有关的遗迹化石; 4、描述和解释内华达州和格陵兰遗址异常保存的地层学和沉积学背景; 5、确定寒武纪早期生物群中非矿化生物的地理亲缘关系。 这项工作的完成将提供有关早寒武世末灭绝之前北美-格陵兰古大陆生物多样性的重要信息。 这反过来，预计将提供一个强有力的基础，与早寒武世的冈瓦纳地区的生物化石，并与劳伦提斯中寒武世的生物化石进行比较。

ABSTRACTPALEOBIOLOGY AND TAPHONOMY OF LOWER CAMBRIAN BURGESS SHALE-TYPE DEPOSITS OF NEVADA AND GREENLANDLoren E. BabcockEAR-0106883This study involves the paleobiology and taphonomy (postmortem history) of two Early Cambrian Burgess Shale-type biotas from western Nevada and North Greenland. The biotas, both from the Laurentian (North America-Greenland) paleocontinent, represent two of the oldest known assemblages of exceptionally preserved animals in the world. These assemblages overlap in part the time of the Cambrian adaptive radiation of multicellular animals. They provide important "windows" into the evolutionary history of the Early Cambrian, and they should provide information about the conditions under which exceptional preservation occurred. The primary purposes of this work are: 1, to collect and document the biota of the new Nevada site and continue documentation of the biota of the Greenland site; 2, to document and interpret information about the taphonomy of the Nevada and Greenland sites; 3, to describe and interpret trace fossils associated with the body fossils; 4, to describe and interpret the stratigraphic and sedimentologic context of exceptional preservation in the Nevada and Greenland sites; and 5, to determine the biogeographic affinities of nonmineralized organisms present in the Early Cambrian biotas. Completion of this work will provide important information about biologic diversity on the North America-Greenland paleocontinent prior to the terminal Early Cambrian extinction. This, in turn, is expected to provide a strong basis for biogeographic comparison with Early Cambrian biotas of Gondwanan areas, and a basis for comparison with biotas from the Middle Cambrian of Laurentia.