Decline of the Burgess Shale fauna: ecologic or taphonomic restriction?

Aronson, R. B. 1992 07 15: Decline of the Burgess Shale fauna: ecologic or taphonomic restriction? An important alternative has not been tested in the debate over the origin, significance, and decline of Burgess Shale taxa: their observed stratigraphic distribution could be an artifact of increasing bioturbation. Based on information currently available, comparisons of the observed and expected stratigraphic distributions of Burgess Shale-type faunas falsify bioturbation as the exclusive cause. Ecological factors and/or taphonomic controls other than bioturbation were also responsible for the post-Cambrian decline of Burgess Shale-type faunas. Bioturbation, Burgess Shale fauna, soft-bodied animals, taphonomy.