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The Burgess Shale of British Columbia is famous for its exceptional preservation of mid-Cambrian organisms. Around 40〔 other sites have been discovered of a similar age, with soft tissues preserved in a similar, though not identical, fashion. Additional sites with a similar form of preservation are known from the Ediacaran and Ordovician periods. These various shales are of great importance in the reconstruction of the ecosystems immediately after the Cambrian explosion. The taphonomic regime results in soft tissue being preserved, which means that organisms without hard parts that could be conventionally fossilised can be seen; also, we gain an insight into the organs of more familiar organisms such as the trilobites. The most famous localities preserving organisms in this fashion are the Canadian Burgess Shale, the Chinese Chengjiang fauna, and the more remote Sirius Passet in north Greenland. However, a number of other localities also exist. ==Distribution== Burgess Shale type biotas are found only in the early and middle Cambrian, but the preservational mode is also present before the Cambrian. It is surprisingly common during the Cambrian period; over 40 sites are known from across the globe, and soft bodied fossils occur in abundance at nine of these.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Burgess Shale type preservation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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