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Lagerstätten

Lagerstätten (from German, singular: Lagerstätte) are sedimentary deposits that exhibit extraordinary fossil richness and completeness. The German word literally translates as "resting places." Palaeontologists distinguish two kinds: Konzentrat-Lagerstätten signifies deposits with a particular concentration of disarticulated organic hard parts, such as a bone bed, and Konservat-Lagerstätten signifies deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms, where the soft parts are preserved, in the form of impressions or casts. The individual taphonomy of the fossils varies with the sites. Sometimes anoxic conditions, as in oxygen-free mud, have suppressed common bacterial decomposition long enough for the initial casts of soft body parts to register.

External link

University of Bristol's Department of Earth Sciences.]

Some of the world's major Lagerstätten include: