UB
University of Bristol
EARTH
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Experimental Taphonomy or How are Fossils Created

Using experiments in a laboratiory setting allows researchers at the University of Bristol to document the stages through which an organism decays. This provides us with an important basis for the interpretation of soft-bodied fossils, particularly problematic fossils such as the Ediacaran fauna and conodonts. The use of experiments allows the factors controlling decay to be determined.

The relative preservation potential of different tissue types and of different creatures can be assessed. A number of processes critical to fossilisation operate on a laboratory time scale. The impact of decay on the susceptibility of skeletons to disarticulation, dissolution and disintegration can be investigated. Soft tissues can be replicated by minerals in experiments giving us a more reliable indication of the conditions and time required for this type of preservation than we can obtain from investigations of fossils and their occurrence.

Laboratory simulations have demonstrated the important role of dehydration in promoting the exceptional preservation of soft tissues in amber. Decay experiments are also important in determining why organic compounds survive to be preserved as fossils (Briggs 1995).

Amazing fossilisation...it looks as if you could touch him....he was in the wrong place...at the wrong time.

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