{"id":396,"date":"2009-03-27T12:30:41","date_gmt":"2009-03-26T23:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/03\/from_an_octupuses_lagerstatte\/"},"modified":"2009-03-27T12:30:41","modified_gmt":"2009-03-26T23:30:41","slug":"from-an-octupuses-lagerstatte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/03\/from-an-octupuses-lagerstatte\/","title":{"rendered":"from an octupuses lagerstatte&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/sci.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2008\/10\/life-in-the-cambrian.shtml\">Burgess Shale fossils<\/a> come from what&#8217;s known as a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lagerst%C3%A4tten\">lagerstatte<\/a> &#8211; a locality containing a rich variety of fossils, where often even the soft tissues of organisms are preserved. Normally these bits would be the first to go during the processes of decomposition &amp; decay, but the lagerstatte fossils formed when the creatures fell to an area of the seabed where the water was anoxic &#8211; no oxygen present, &amp; hence very little decay. The bodies were then&nbsp;rapidly covered in fine-grained silt, which preserved the shape &amp; often the details of the soft tisses as they fossilised.<\/p>\n<p>The Burgess Shale isn&#8217;t unique: other lagerstatten include the Solnhofen limestones, which provided the scientific community&#8217;s first sight of&nbsp;<i>Archaeopteryx<\/i>, not to mention some of the sites in China that have yielded other beautiful fossils of feathered dinosaurs &amp; early birds, not to mention some lovely Cambrian arthropods. And to those sites we can add another in Lebanon, where palaeontologists have found some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.livescience.com\/php\/multimedia\/imagedisplay\/img_display.php?s=animals&amp;c=news&amp;l=on&amp;pic=090318-levante-uv2-02.jpg&amp;cap=Keuppia+levante%2C+one+of+three+new+species+of+95+million-year-old+octopuses.+Octopus+fossils+are+among+the+rarest+and+unlikeliest+of+fossils.+Credit%3A+Dirk+Fuchs&amp;title=\">absolutely stunning fossils<\/a> of 95-million-year-old octopuses. Stunning for their beauty, their completeness, and for the presence of many transitional features that will help to unravel the tale of octopus evolution.<\/p>\n<p>And as usual, <a href=\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/pharyngula\/2009\/03\/octopods_from_the_cretaceous.php\">PZ has done a great job of writing about them<\/a>. But you&#8217;d expect that, from someone who&#8217;s mad about cephalopods! (The comments section is also enjoyable.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Burgess Shale fossils come from what&#8217;s known as a lagerstatte &#8211; a locality containing a rich variety of fossils, where often even the soft tissues of organisms are preserved. Normally these bits would be the first to go during the processes of decomposition &amp; decay, but the lagerstatte fossils formed when the creatures fell [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13],"tags":[12,14],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>from an octupuses lagerstatte... : BioBlog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/03\/from-an-octupuses-lagerstatte\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"from an octupuses lagerstatte... : BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Burgess Shale fossils come from what&#8217;s known as a lagerstatte &#8211; a locality containing a rich variety of fossils, where often even the soft tissues of organisms are preserved. Normally these bits would be the first to go during the processes of decomposition &amp; decay, but the lagerstatte fossils formed when the creatures fell [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/03\/from-an-octupuses-lagerstatte\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-26T23:30:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AcampbelTeacher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/03\/from-an-octupuses-lagerstatte\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/03\/from-an-octupuses-lagerstatte\/\",\"name\":\"from an octupuses lagerstatte... : BioBlog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-26T23:30:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-03-26T23:30:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/03\/from-an-octupuses-lagerstatte\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/03\/from-an-octupuses-lagerstatte\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/03\/from-an-octupuses-lagerstatte\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"from an octupuses lagerstatte&#8230;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\",\"name\":\"BioBlog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\",\"name\":\"Alison\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AcampbelTeacher\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/author\/acampbel\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"from an octupuses lagerstatte... : BioBlog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/03\/from-an-octupuses-lagerstatte\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"from an octupuses lagerstatte... : BioBlog","og_description":"The Burgess Shale fossils come from what&#8217;s known as a lagerstatte &#8211; a locality containing a rich variety of fossils, where often even the soft tissues of organisms are preserved. 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