Taphofacies Models of Devonian in Longmenshan Area, Sichuan, China

Taphonomy refers primarily to the study of processes between death and final burial of an organism or a group of organisms, including both taphonomic loss and taphonomic gain. Taphofacies refers to the taphonomic traits, which include the taphonomic attributes of all fossils and the lithologic features of their enclosing rocks. Taphofacies is different from lithofacies; as a taphonomic environmental setting or taphonomic condition, it is more useful than the stratigraphic body of rock. Based on the features of fossil preservation integrated with stratigraphic, sedimentologic and paleontologic evidence from Devonian of Longmenshan area, it is distinguished and described 11 taphofacies models. For convenience in the field, the name of each taphofacies is divided into taphonomic and lithologic traits. The spatial relations between each taphofacies and the taphofacies with the benthic assemblages 1-6 are discussed.