Name: The Soom Shale Location: Cape Province, South Africa Age: Late Ordovician (Ashgill)

The Soom Shale is a Konservat-Lagerstatte. This means a deposit where the fossils show exceptional preservation. They occur in environments where no bioturbation or scavenging took place, and can sometimes bypass decay and decomposition. They are likely to be deposited in anoxic conditions, where quick preservation can occur on a local scale.

• Location
• Geological setting and age
• Fauna
• Taphonomy
• References and links

Section author: Tim Coussens

This section is part of a Fossil Lagersttten web site which has been built up as a result of the efforts of the 2002-3 MSc Palaeobiology class in the Department of Earth Sciences at University of Bristol, as part of a course in Scientific Communication.

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