Glossary
- Arthropoda / Arthropods
- Arthropods include trilobites, crustaceans, arachnids and insects and are the most diverse of all phyla, 530 million years ago and today.
- Benthic
- 'Bottom-dwelling', on or near the sea bed.
- Biota
- The flora (plants) and fauna (animals) of a given region.
- Biozone
- A time period defined by the occurence of a particular fossil.
- Brachiopoda / Brachiopods
- The 'lamp shells', two-shelled animals superfically similar to the bivalve molluscs.
- Burgess Shale, the
- A mid-Cambrian age deposit showing similar preservation. Despite the 10-15 million-year age gap and separation by an ancient ocean, Burgess shares a similar fauna with Chengjiang.
- Cambrian
- The earliest period of multi-cellular life.
- Chordata / Chordates
- An animal with a nerve cord, the ancestors of the vertebrates ('back-boned') and ultimately, ourselves.
- Cnidaria
- The group which includes corals, sea anemones and jellyfish.
- Coprolite
- Fossil faeces.
- Deposit feeders
- Animals which feed from the sediment.
- Dorsal
- Back / top.
- Epifaunal
- Animals living on the sea bed, but not within it.
- Eustatic
- A global change in sea level.
- Flute casts
- A feature of turbulent erosion.
- Graded bedding
- Bedding which shows a vertical or lateral change in grain size due to sorting in a turbulent flow.
- Hematite
- Fe2O3, an ore mineral of Iron.
- Hemichordata
- Worm-like animals which share some features with the chordates.
- Infaunal
- Living 'in' the sea bed, i.e. partially or completely within the sediment.
- in situ
- In place.
- Lagerstätten
- A site of exceptional fossil preservation. Characterised by high abundance (many fossils) and/or the preservation of soft-parts (that usually don't preserve due to decay).
- Lobopodia / Lobopods
- 'Limbed animals', can be thought of as worms with legs.
- Ma
- Age in million of years, e.g. 530 Ma = 530,000,000 years.
- Palaeo-
- Ancient.
- Palaeoecology
- The study of the ecology of ancient organisms (fossils).
- Palaeontology
- The study of fossils.
- Pelagic
- Non-bottom dwelling forms, living higher in the water column.
- Phyla / Phylum
- The highest grouping in the animal or plant kingdom.
- Poriferia
- The sponges.
- Priapulida
- Carnivorous worms that tend to be short and fat.
- Sessile
- Organisms which cannot move and are anchored to the sea bed.
- Suspension feeders
- Animals which feed on particles in the water.
- Taphonomy
- The study of the process of decay and fossilisation, or what happens between an
organism's death and it's recovery as a fossil.
- Tool marks
- A mark made in sediment by a mobile object.
- Ventral
- Bottom / underside.