Ecology and Diversity of Cambrian Faunas Lab Report

Ecology and Diversity of Cambrian Faunas - Lab Report Example It was required to compare the results with information on modern faunas and normal Cambrian faunas. Also, it was required to discuss the representativeness of the former and the differences between the latter and Cambrian faunas.   It represents most of the deep marine but not shallow or tropical one. The reason for this is that Cambrian rocks only have marine fossils, mainly for species that lived on hard substrates on the sea floor and this includes Burgess Shale fauna   6. How does fauna of Burgess Shale compare with that of Cambrian deposits exhibiting normal (mineralized hard part-only) preservation, in terms of higher taxa represented and their relative proportion? How representative therefore are normal faunas?   In terms of higher taxa representation, Cambrian deposits exhibiting normal (mineralized hard part-only) preservation accounts for only a minor component of the total diversity. Similarly, in most Burgess Shale-types deposits, the Shelly assemblage normally represents a small proportion of the collected specimen. In this case, soft-bodied organisms fossilized remains especially from Burgess Shale the Cambrian ecosystem knowledge could be totally limited   Burgess fauna consists of many soft-bodied animals’ fossils as well as those with hard parts. A completely soft-bodied animal normally rot away before it is fossilized. Hard parts are crucial because they are more easily preserved; they are seen to help an organism last for a longer time to become fossilized. Burgess Shale is rich in life most of the fauna in it are soft bodies while it contains only 0.89% of mineralized hard parts.   Burgess Shale, organisms lived in underwater mud banks, the moving water buried living organism in moving sediment. They are therefore found in random orientation. Modern muddy marine invertebrates usually curl up upon dying but fossils of the Burgess Shale locality never exhibit such coiling and there is evidence that this organism died instantly.