A NEW DATASET OF PHANEROZOIC MARINE KONSERVAT-LAGERSTӒTTEN: PATTERNS IN SECULAR DISTRIBUTION

Deposits where non-mineralized tissues are preserved, known as Konservat-Lagerstӓtten, offer important insights into paleobiology and paleodiversity. Since Alison and Briggs (1993) evaluated the secular distribution of these deposits numerous new localities have been discovered. Here a new dataset is presented containing more than 85 marine deposits where non-mineralized tissues (excluding recalcitrant tissues such as lignin, sporopollenin and graptolite periderm) are preserved. These deposits are unevenly distributed throughout geologic time and this distribution does not correspond to that of fossiliferous units in general. This new dataset also includes information on the mechanism(s) of soft tissue preservation at each site, revealing changes in primary preservational mechanisms during the phanerozoic. Major styles of non-mineralized tissue preservation include carbonaceous compressions, phosphatization, pyritization and organic residues/outlines as well as exceptionally detailed impressions and mold/casts. Geological, geochemical and biological trends are compared to the distribution of exceptional preservation throughout the Phanerozoic and incidence of individual preservational mechanisms.