About this Research Topic

Background

The fossil record provides valuable information on past life on Earth. Fossils preserving soft tissues, such as digestive and nervous systems – also known as exceptional fossils, found in sites called Lagerstätten – and are particularly important in providing more complete pictures of past life when compared to those preserving only mineralized remains (e.g., shells and bones). Lagerstätten are rare over geological time scales, but are remarkably present in the Cambrian and Ordovician. The study of Cambro-Ordovician exceptionally preserved fossils has revolutionized our understanding of anatomical and morphological innovations, in addition to ecological and evolutionary adaptations during the Cambrian Explosion and the Ordovician Radiation of animals – two major evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth. Since the discovery of the earliest site in the Canadian Rockies, tens of other sites preserving labile anatomies have been found globally in countries such as, but are not limited to, USA, Morocco, China, and Australia.

The abundance of discovered fossils and their minute preservation increased the interests of researchers in Lagerstätten. A large number of studies are published each year dealing with the anatomy, ecology, and evolution of these ancient organisms, in addition to their preservation, chemical signatures, and the sedimentary environments colonized by these animals. This Research Topic aims to combine the latest advances on the topic of Cambro-Ordovician Lagerstätten.

Submissions covering one or more of the following aspects are welcomed:
• Paleontology: new material description and/or fossil re-interpretation (macro-, micro-, and ichno-fossils);
• Ecology and evolution: including but not limited to, phylogenetic analyses, community assembly, food web analyses, biogeography, and evolutionary and ecological trends during the Early Palaeozoic;
• Taphonomy: chemical characterization of fossils, preservational biases, geochemistry, and sedimentary analyses.

Keywords: exceptional fossil preservation, ecology, evolution, sedimentology, taphonomy, palaeozoic, lagerstätten

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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