Numerical Approaches to the Evaluation of Fossils and Ancient Ecosystems
rozdział
rozdział
Fifty years have now passed since the discovery of Charnia masoni and Charniodiscus concentricus in Charnwood Forest, UK. But what is Charnia? And how was it related to the great explosion of animal fossils at the base of the Cambrian that it immediately predates? Recent studies focussing on the growth dynamics and morphology of the group have been greatly aided by the use of innovative photographic...
rozdział
Among all problems confronting the study of permineralized (petrified) fossils—the most life-like remnants preserved in the fossil record—two stand out, the need for (1) accurate documentation of their three-dimensional morphology, and (2) direct analysis of their chemical composition and that of their embedding mineral matrix. These problems can be addressed effectively by the use of two techniques...
rozdział
Non-biomineralized fossils from the Burgess Shale Formation are typically preserved as near two dimensional carbonaceous remains of the original tissues associated with films of aluminosilicate minerals; the host lithologies have experienced a long, complicated, diagenetic and metamorphic history. Such ‘layered’ substrates exhibit lateral and vertical variation in sample chemistry over micron-scale...
rozdział
One of the major technological advances in biological research was the invention and development of the transmission electron microscope, which enables high resolution and high magnification studies of cross-sections of specimens. As such, it has proved to be a useful tool to describe ultrastructural features of taxonomic and phylogenetic importance in modern organisms. Here we discuss how to extend...
rozdział
Coupled dual-beam focused ion beam electron microscopy (FIB-EM) has gained popularity across multiple disciplines over the past decade. Widely utilized as a stand-alone instrument for micromachining and metal- or insulator-deposition in numerous industries, the sub-μm-scale ion milling and integrated electron imaging capabilities of such FIB-based systems are well documented in the materials science...
rozdział
Molecular fossils can be a useful source of information about past organismic physiology and an effective tool for reconstruction of paleoenvironmental conditions. This is particularly the case with Precambrian sediments, which only rarely contain visible fossils. However, since these most ancient of rocks are frequently thermally altered and contain low contents of organic matter, analytical uncertainties...
rozdział
Stable isotope geochemistry has important applications for understanding past environments and should be incorporated, where appropriate, into paleontological research. This chapter aims to provide a basic introduction to the field of stable isotope geochemistry, highlight fundamental isotopic systems used in paleoenvironmental analysis, outline methods used to acquire isotopic data, explain common...
