Exceptionally preserved fossil biotas of the Burgess Shale and a handful of other similar Cambrian deposits provide rare but critical insights into the early diversification of animals. The extraordinary preservation of labile tissues in these geographically widespread but temporally restricted soft-bodied fossil assemblages has remained enigmatic since Walcott's initial discovery in 1909. Here, w

The Devonian appearance of 1-10 meter long armored fish (placoderms) coincides with geochemical evidence recording a transition into fully oxygenated oceans.1 A comparison of extant fish shows that the large individuals are less tolerant to hypoxia than their smaller cousins. This leads us to hypothesize that Early Paleozoic O(2) saturation levels were too low to support >1 meter size marine, pred

The evolution of Earth's biota is intimately linked to the oxygenation of the oceans and atmosphere. We use the isotopic composition and concentration of molybdenum (Mo) in sedimentary rocks to explore this relationship. Our results indicate two episodes of global ocean oxygenation. The first coincides with the emergence of the Ediacaran fauna, including large, motile bilaterian animals, ca. 550-5

The Late Ordovician stratigraphic record integrates glacio-eustatic processes, water-column redox conditions and carbon cycle dynamics. This complex stratigraphic record, however, is dominated by deposits from epeiric seas that are susceptible to local physical and chemical processes decoupled from the open ocean. This study contributes a unique deep water basinal perspective to the Late Ordovicia

We studied sediments from the ca. 1400 million-year-old Xiamaling Formation from the North China block. The upper unit of this formation (unit 1) deposited mostly below storm wave base and contains alternating black and green-gray shales with very distinct geochemical characteristics. The black shales are enriched in redox-sensitive trace metals, have high concentrations of total organic carbon (T

The end Ordovician (Hirnantian) extinction was the first of the five big Phanerozoic extinction events, and the first that involved metazoan-based communities. It comprised two discrete pulses, both linked in different ways to an intense but short-lived glaciation at the South Pole. The first, occurring at, or just below, the Normalograptus extraordinarius graptolite Biozone, mainly affected nekto

The Paleoproterozoic Era witnessed crucial steps in the evolution of Earth's surface environments following the first appreciable rise of free atmospheric oxygen concentrations ∼2.3 to 2.1 Ga ago, and concomitant shallow ocean oxygenation. While most sedimentary successions deposited during this time interval have experienced thermal overprinting from burial diagenesis and metamorphism, the ca. 2.

Elevated molybdenum (Mo) contents in organic-rich sediments are indicative of deposition from an anoxic and sulfide-rich (euxinic) water-column. This can be used for tracing past euxinic conditions in ancient oceans from sedimentary archives. Conventional analytical detection of elevated molybdenum levels is, however, expensive and cannot be directly performed in the field. Here, we show that hand

Multiple beds in the Frankfort Shale (Upper Ordovician, New York State), including the original "Beecher's Trilobite Bed," yield fossils with pyritized soft-tissues. A bed-by-bed geochemical and sedimentological analysis was carried out to test previous models of soft-tissue pyritization by investigating environmental, depositional and diagenetic conditions in beds with and without soft-tissue pre

The end-Ordovician extinction consisted of two discrete pulses, both linked, in various ways, to glaciation at the South Pole. The first phase, starting just below the Normalograptus extraordinarius Zone, particularly affected nektonic and planktonic species, while the second pulse, associated with the Normalograptus persculptus Zone, was less selective. Glacially induced cooling and oxygenation a

Burgess Shale-type biotas occur globally in the Cambrian record and offer unparalleled insight into the Cambrian explosion, the initial Phanerozoic radiation of the Metazoa. Deposits bearing exceptionally preserved soft-bodied fossils are unusually common in Cambrian strata; more than 40 are now known. The well-documented decline of soft-bodied preservation following the Middle Cambrian represents

To explore how seawater chemistry might influence exceptional Burgess Shale-type preservation, freshly-killed shrimp and annelids were covered in clay and exposed to high and low sulfate concentrations for up to six weeks of anaerobic decay. Decay was monitored by carbon mass balance calculations and non-destructive imaging. Decay rates and visual distortion of shrimp cuticle and muscle appear slo

Most organisms that ever lived on Earth lacked skeletons and have therefore escaped preservation in the geological record. This fact makes it hard to accurately trace the evolution of multicellular organisms and the tree of life. However a handful faunas did get exceptionally well-preserved, including their soft-bodied members, just when complex lifeforms diverged 550 million years ago. Geochemica

PURPOSE: To investigate the contents of green- and blue-sensitive cone photoreceptors in laminated rabbit retinal transplants.METHODS: Eleven rabbits each received a sheet of embryonic neuroretina into the subretinal space in one eye. Vitrectomy was used in the procedure and properly polarized flat transplants were placed on the host pigment epithelium. After 17-309 days the transplants were exami

Embryonic full-thickness rabbit neuroretinal sheets were transplanted to the subretinal space of adult hosts. This was accomplished by using a new transplantation technique involving vitrectomy and retinotomy. The grafts were followed from 10 to 306 days after surgery and were then examined by different histological techniques. In the light microscope, the transplants were seen to develop the norm

BACKGROUND: The study was carried out to evaluate the expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules in retinal transplants with different tissue integrity.METHODS: Twelve adult rabbits received an allogeneic subretinal neuroretinal transplant, in the form of either fragmented embryonic cells or a complete full-thickness embryonic retina. A controlled transvitreal approach was used

PURPOSE: To establish neuronal connections in the rod and cone pathway between laminated rabbit retinal transplants and the host retina.METHODS: Fourteen adult rabbits received a complete full-thickness embryonic transplant. After survival times of 3 to 10 months, the retinas were studied under light microscope and with immunohistochemistry. Antibodies against protein kinase C (PKC), parvalbumin,

PURPOSE: To examine immunohistochemical markers in straight, well-laminated retinal transplants with special attention paid to the interphotoreceptor matrix, the Müller cells and the ganglion cells as these three retinal components have been abnormal in transplants produced by previous methods.METHODS: Nine rabbits underwent subretinal transplantation of a complete full-thickness embryonic neurore