Dr. Javier Ortega-Hernández, Harvard University, USA
Javier Ortega-Hernández, Associate Professor at the Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard Univeristy, will present: "A multifacetted North American perspective into the cambrian explosion – the exceptionally preserved Marjum fossil biota of Utah"
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Exceptional marine fossil biotas preserve the remains of diverse soft-bodied organisms that critically inform the biodiversity and ecological complexity of the Cambrian Explosion, ultimately leading to a better understanding on the origins of metazoans and their role in the modern biosphere. Ongoing investigations combining fieldwork and historical museum collections on the 500 million year old Marjum biota from Utah in the Western United States are redefining our view of Cambrian biodiversity, and significantly complement our knowledge from well-known Cambrian sites worldwide including the mid-Cambrian Burgess Shale of Canada and the early Cambrian Chengjiang of South China.
The Marjum biota is highly fossiliferous, boasting over 150 species, ca. over half of which are soft-bodied, making it the most diverse exceptionally preserved Cambrian site in the United States. The Marjum biota is dominated by panarthropods and sponges in both species richness and abundance. The high preservation quality is evidenced by the common observation of internal organs, including nervous system and muscle fibres, and the presence of animal clades with extremely scarce Cambrian fossil records such as ctenophores, tunicates, and vertebrates. The Marjum biota fossils are redefining our view of early animal evolution at various levels, from internal organ macroevolution to previously unrecognized paleobiogeographic patterns affecting the distribution of fossil biotas at a global scale.
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