Exceptional fossil record: distribution of soft-tissue preservation through the Phanerozoic: comment and reply

Geologic evidence based on the preservation of soft-bodied fossil biotas suggests that deep bioturbators radiated from onshore to offshore habitats through the early Palezoic. Its also indicates that deep burrowers only became significant during the Carboniferous and that during the Cambrian there was a general lack of bioturbators in deep-water habitats. However, insufficient sampling of early Paleozoic deep-water sequences has led to a possible miscomprehension of the abundance and diversity of ichnotaxa and extent of sediment reworking.