Lagersttten

Prepared By:
SABINO, Anna Nerissa C.
SAN JOSE, Czarina Maye P.

Lagersttte(pluralLagersttten)
German word:

Lager and Sttte literally meaning "place

of storage

rock strata within the geological record

which contain a much more completely
preserved record, can be considered as
windows on the history of life on Earth

Konzentrat-Lagersttten
Concentration

Lagersttten
deposits with a
peculiar
abundance of
broken-up hard
parts, such as a
bone bed

Categories ofKonzentratLagersttten
Condensation
deposits
Placer deposits

Concentration traps

Fossil Bone Bed; concentrated

deposits of fish teeth, scales and
bones. Silurian Period, about 420

Konservat-Lagersttten
Conservation

Lagersttten
extraordinary
preservation of
fossilized life forms,
especially where the
soft parts are
preserved

Categories ofKonservatLagersttten
Stagnation

deposits
Obrution deposits
Conservation Traps

Jurassic Holzmaden Shale of

southern Germany, a pregnant
ichthyosaur
A very
A typical
young
flattened
mammoth
Burgess
snap Shale
frozen
and revealed
fossil,Opabinia
in melting permafrost,
with much of its hair intact, though
missing its trunk, display in the St

Soft Tissue Preservation

Typically bacteria mediated
o

The microbes responsible

for the quick decay of
tissues release ions as they
metabolize
the
organic
matter.
o These
ions
are
then
available to precipitate in
and around the nearby
tissues, fossilizing them.
o Microbes play a role in both
destroying the soft tissue
and mineralizing it.

Soft Tissue Preservation

Begins very quickly
Preservation in :
o Pyrite
As the bacteria

metabolize the organic

matter, they reduce the
sulfur and the iron,
eventually forming
pyrite.
This 7.5 inch by 6.0 inch slab from the
Lower Devonian (390 million year old)
Hunsruck slate of the Rhine region near
Bundenbach, Germany holds an example
of a starfish known as Furcaster
palaeozoicus. The starfish itself is
highlighted in pyrite, indicative of the

Soft Tissue Preservation

o Carbonate

these may have been formed when decay

increased the HCO3- ion concentration trapped below
a layer of sediment.
If the sediment were suddenly washed away, carbon
dioxide would quickly escape.
As a result, the water would suddenly become less
acidic causing calcium or magnesium carbonates in
solution to quickly precipitate and infiltrate the
buried plant material

o Phosphate

The microbes metabolic activity increases

the phosphate ion concentration and
decreases the pH in the immediate vicinity.

Burgess Shale

Burgess Shale
Discovered by Charles D. Walcott in

1909
found in an area of the Canadian

Rocky Mountains known as the

Burgess Pass
represents one of the most diverse

and well-preserved fossil localities in

the world from Cambrian Explosion

Burgess Shale
A n om alocari
s
C an ad en sis
The largest
predator of
the Cam brian,

Burgess Shale
Burgessochaeta setigera
A burrowing bristleworm with a pair of long
tentacles

Burgess Shale
Marrella
splendens
An abundant
arthropod with large
head spines

Th e S oln h ofen
Lim eston e of G erm an y

The Solnhofen Lim estone

of G erm any
carbonate muds form a type of fine-

grained, flat-cleaving limestone

(known asPlattenkalkin German)
fossils from the Solnhofen Limestone

show exquisite detail and often

include fragile or soft-bodied
organisms

The Solnhofen Lim estone

of G erm any
Archaeoptery
x lithographica
The earliest
knownbird

The Solnhofen Lim estone

of G erm any

Protolindenia
(dragonfly)

The Solnhofen Lim estone

of G erm any

Beetl
e