近日，中科院南京地质古生物研究所澄江动物群和寒武纪大爆发研究取得新成果，该成果以封面文章形式发表在国际著名学术期刊《古代》（Palaios）上，这也是Palaios首次发表中国学者的封面文章。
该研究针对澄江动物群的埋藏机制和生态群落特征问题，打破传统的化石采样方法，首次在国内采用定量统计方法，对澄江生物群埋藏的核心区域进行了系统采样发掘。在获得近1万2千块标本的基础上，对含化石地层沉积学和化石组合进行了定量化对比分析研究，不仅定量论证了节肢动物是澄江动物群的优势类群，还识别了两个重要的化石埋藏相，证实了同一群落经过不同埋藏过程是导致两种埋藏相内化石群落差异的主要原因。该研究不仅为揭示寒武纪大爆发时期生物群落面貌和多样性提供了新的证据，也为探讨埋藏偏差对化石群落影响，以及为开展不同埋藏相、不同区域化石群对比研究提供的新研究思路。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
PALAIOS; December 2009; v. 24; no. 12; p. 826-839; DOI: 10.2110/palo.2009.p09-004r
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF TAPHOFACIES AND PALEOCOMMUNITIES IN THE EARLY CAMBRIAN CHENGJIANG LAGERST?TTE
FANGCHEN ZHAO1,2, JEAN-BERNARD CARON3, SHIXUE HU1,4 and MAOYAN ZHU*,1,5
1 State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing, 210008, China
2 Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
3 Department of Natural History–Palaeobiology, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada
4 Yunnan Institute of Geological Sciences, No. 87 Dongfeng Lane, Dongfeng Donglu, Kunming, 650051, China
Detailed sedimentological and quantitative taphonomical analyses of 11,974 fossil specimens from an early Cambrian (Stage 3) Chengjiang-type deposit near Haikou, Yunnan, reveals significant relationships between the original depositional environments and the composition and preservation of their respective fossil assemblages. In general, the Maotianshan Shale is characterized by superimposed couplets of laminated background and thin event mudstone layers representing two distinct taphofacies, A and B, respectively. Fossils in taphofacies A consist predominantly of indeterminate organic elements and fecal or algal strings with few, poorly preserved, soft-bodied animals. Among those, disarticulated arthropods account for 84.3% of specimens (mostly isolated valves of Kunmingella douvillei) and 51.4% of species. Poriferans represent 7.4% of specimens and 22.9% of species. Fossils in this taphofacies have undergone significant pre- or syn-burial decay and represent limited time-averaged assemblages exhibiting low species richness. By contrast, taphofacies B contains greater numbers of species and specimens and better preserved soft-bodied animals. Taphofacies B represents mostly smothered organisms by distal tempestites. Arthropods are also dominant in taphofacies B, both in terms of species richness (41%) and abundance of specimens (44%). Poriferans, priapulids, lobopods, and brachiopods exhibit similar low species richness (6–8% each), but poriferans and lobopods are numerically rare, at around 1% each, whereas priapulids and brachiopods make up 26% and 24% of specimens, respectively. The arthropod Kunmingella douvillei (19%), the priapulid Cricocosmia jinningensis (19%), and the brachiopod Diandongia pista (18%) are the most abundant species in taphofacies B. Fossil assemblages in taphofacies A and B have similar recurrent and abundant species and similar temporal trends in evenness and richness, but taphofacies A captures only a portion of the species that are preserved in taphofacies B. These results suggest that the fossil assemblages present in both taphofacies represent a single local community subjected to two different taphonomic processes and imply similar recurrent environmental conditions within the section studied.
