Tar Pit fossils

Book reviewed in this article:
Harris. John M. & Jefferson, George L. (eds.) 1985: Rancho La Brea: Treasures of the Tar Pits     

Borings and bioerosion in fossils

Ancient marine organisms that excavated holes in shells and other calcium carbonate substrates on the sea bed have not been widely studied by palaeontologists. Together with scrape and scratch marks made by rasping grazers on shell surfaces, they constitute a group of hard–substrate trace fossils that have many modern equivalents. Even the smallest forms can be studied by casting the holes in plastic resin and dissolving the shell. The variety of borers increased in the Mesozoic Era, thereby avoiding the attentions of predatory groups that were radiating at the same time.     

中国剑龙类恐龙化石

我国中生代陆相沉积地层发育、分布广泛,有近百个恐龙化石产地分布,从东部的山东半岛到西部的甘肃、新疆;从云南、四川到内蒙古和黑龙江。目前,我国已经成为世界上发现恐龙化石最多的国家,已研究命名的恐龙种类达210多个。其中剑龙类恐龙化石9属10种,包括在国内外都享有盛名的华阳龙、沱江龙、嘉陵龙、巨棘龙、将军龙。太白华阳龙化石的发现为剑龙类起源于东亚提供了佐证,四川巨棘龙副肩棘原始埋藏状态的发现使研究人员对其功能和意义有了新的认识,四川巨棘龙皮肤印模化石的发现对认识剑龙类表皮结构提供了新的证据。     

Trace fossils from proglacial lake sediments

Trace fossils have been discovered in Middle Pleistocene proglacial lake sediments from St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England. They indicate that this environment was capable of supporting a variety of benthonic animals. The fossils are described and tentatively assigned to several invertebrate groups.     

华南伊迪卡拉纪类水母化石新发现

An abundant and diversified assemblage of benthic fossils from the Ediacaran Doushantuo black shales in the Wenghui section of Guizhou Province contains two discoidal carbonaceous forms, Kullingia rotadiscopsis sp. nov. and Eoaequorea xingi gen. & sp. nov. The fossils have well-preserved concentric rings and radiating lines, and resemble many circular casts and moulds in Ediacaran clastic and carbonate rocks in the world, such as Aspidella, Ediacaria, Cyclomedusa, Eoporpita, Ovatoscutum, Spriggia and Kullingia. The Doushantuo carbonaceous macrofossils help us to inquire into the current functional identifications of circular disks as the holdfasts of unknown organism or scratch circles. Although there is not sufficient correspondence in morphology to warrant reinterpreting all previously described Kullingia and Aspidella form-genus-type structures, these carbonaceous compressions are prone to be the ancestor of pelagic jellyfish-like organisms with medusoid hydrozoan affinity.     

English Wealden fossils: an update

The non-marine Wealden succession of southern England contains a great variety of fossils, new finds of which continue to reveal novel insights into the animals and plants that inhabited this part of the world during much of the Early Cretaceous. Although seldom common, careful searching during the past few years has yielded megafossils that add to previous knowledge of occurrences of taxa and palaeoenvironmental conditions. Particularly significant in this respect has been the recovery of a large number of new insect species, but there have also been numerous finds of vertebrate bones and other body parts, such as teeth, skulls, a claw and a cranial endocast. In addition, the taxonomy of some of these groups and, in the case of dinosaurs, the ichnotaxonomy of their footprints and trackways, has been reviewed and/or reassessed. In this paper, we provide an illustrated account of the research that has been published on Wealden geology and the fossils that have been recovered from the succession since a field guide to English Wealden fossils was issued by the Palaeontological Association in 2011. It is aimed at providing the reader with a document of first resort for fossil identification purposes and a lead into the literature for further information.     

Misplaced trace fossils in unlikely environments

Graphoglyptids are trace fossils that are generally acknowledged to have had a deep-sea origin, displaying complex, nutrient gathering strategies in response to stable environments with low productivity. However, two recently discovered graphoglyptids in the Permian of New Mexico seem to challenge previous assumptions. Rather than in deep-sea sediments, Spirorhaphe azteca and Augerinoichnus helicoidalis were discovered in tidal flat palaeoenvironments, showing that these behavioural patterns are also carried out by animals in tidal settings. Fine sediments of the region are recognized as the key factor in the preservation of these trace fossils. Presence of graphoglyptids in a transitional environment demonstrates that behaviour is not solely defined by depth, but many intricate factors are involved.     

Oxfordian plug-shaped trace fossils from northwestern Algeria

Plug-shaped trace fossils B. perata, B. hemispherica, Bergaueria isp., Calycraterion samsonowiczi, Conostichus ornatus and Conostichus isp. are found in the middle-upper Oxfordian fine-grained sandstone of the Argiles de Saïda Formation (northwestern Algeria). Except for the trace Calycraterion which is interpreted as an annelid trace, these traces correspond to distinct behaviours of sea anemones, and their occurrence within tempestite deposits is influenced by a stress factors in a storm-dominated environment. The abundance of these plug-shaped trace fossils suggests that the upper Jurassic siliciclastic shelves with fine-grained soft clastic substrate were colonised by actinarian sessile benthos.     

基于深度学习的介形类化石识别

介形类化石对地质年代的确定、古湖泊和古海洋的研究、古环境的重建以及海底石油资源的勘探等工作都具有重要意义。然而,现有识别化石颗粒的方法费时费力,准确率也有待提高。鉴于介形类化石颗粒的类别具有科、属、种的层次结构,种类数量庞大,所以本文提出了一种层次化识别方法。首先进行目标检测,实现介形类化石的定位与属类划分;之后在目标检测模块的基础上进行智能识别,使用卷积神经网络和支持向量机提取属类下更细微的种类特征,实现化石种类划分。实验结果表明,本文提出的分层次识别模型能检测出化石图像中所有化石颗粒的位置信息并对其进行分类,分类准确率可达95%,且相较于未进行分层次识别的模型,能将识别准确率提升1.8%~5.8%。     

Upper bathyal trace fossils document palaeoclimate changes

Marine trace fossils were investigated in a 102-m cored section that covers −14.379 to −14.142 Ma (Middle Miocene). Long-term climate trends are perfectly reflected by changing trace fossil communities of the upper bathyal (−200 to −300 m). The community structure is expressed in abundance of taxa based on probabilities of time concordance between the deposition of the sediment and the time, when the traces were produced. Changes in community structure precisely parallel the increasing δ¹³C isotopes during the Middle Miocene climate transition and perfectly mirror oscillations in solar insolation in both amplitudes and phase. Furthermore, the density stratification of the seawater caused by wind-induced currents is reflected in trace fossil communities. Additionally, the dependence of ichnotaxa abundance from threshold values in the sedimentation rate could be demonstrated.     

Applications of molecular fossils in lacustrine stratigraphy

Biomarkers, or the so-called molecular fossils, are used tentatively in the Eogene lacustrine stratigraphy study in the Jiyang Sub-basin. Notwithstanding the fact that unidentified microfossils or amorphism and acritarchae are widely distributed in lacustrine source rocks, molecular fossils are useful to identify the sources. It is helpful to reconstruct the palaeo-enviroment, palaeo-ecosystem and compartmentalize the stratigraphic sequence by using molecular fossils with which the existence and types of microbes including bacteria, archaea and certain algae can be identified.     

Study on Folds of Equal Thickness Multi—layer Sandwiched in Different Thickness Media

The theoretical model and non-homogeneous differential equation of equal thickness multi-layer folds sandwiched in different thickness and same character media are established by elas-tic and plastic mechanics.The special answer of the non-homogeneous differential equation and the common answer of the homogeneous differential equation are deduced by applying logistic equation and special function,and the dominant wavelength theory of equal thickness multi-layer folds sand-wiched in different thickness and same character media.In addition,the experimental folding in both elastic and sticky materials proves the dominant wavelength theory.