Unifying Model For The Fossilization Of Soft-Bodied Organisms

[Oxytropidoceras]

550-million-year-old fossils provide new clues

about fossil formation. PhysOrg, Dec. 18, 2104

http://phys.org/news/2014-12-million-year-old-fossils-clues-fossil-formation.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141218120844.htm

550 Million Year Old Fossils Provide New

Clues about Fossil Formation by Fran Webber

MU News Bureau, December 17, 2014

http://research.missouri.edu/news/story.php?476

The paper is;

Schiffbauer, J. D., s. Xiao, Y. Cai, A. F.

Wallace, H. Hua, J. Hunter, H. Xu, Y. Peng,

and A. J. Kaufman, 2014, A unifying model

for Neoproterozoic–Palaeozoic exceptional

fossil preservation through pyritization and

carbonaceous compression. Nature

Communications. vol. 5, article number:

5754, doi:10.1038/ncomms6754

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141217/ncomms6754/abs/ncomms6754.html

A related article is:

Soft Fossils: A rare fossil find offers a window

into Cambrian life, University of Missouri

http://illumination.missouri.edu/s14/soft_fossils

Yours,

Paul H.

[Missourian]

Interesting.

I've wondered if soft-bodied organisms, under certain conditions, could be preserved by a cyanobacterial film (or something similar) that forms over the surface before decomposition or perhaps even before death.