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A review of preservational variation of fossil inclusions in amber of different chemical groups

journal contribution
posted on 2018-04-05, 11:37 authored by Victoria E. McCoy, Carmen Soriano, Sarah E. Gabbott
Fossils in amber are a particularly important and unique palaeobiological resource. Amber is best known for preserving exceptionally life-like fossils, including microscopic anatomical details, but this fidelity of preservation is an end-member of a wide spectrum of preservation quality. Many amber sites only preserve cuticle or hollow moulds, and most amber sites have no fossils at all. The taphonomic processes that control this range in preservation are essentially unknown. Here, we review the relationship between amber groups and fossil preservation, based on published data, to determine whether there is a correlation between resin type and aspects of preservation quality. We found that ambers of different chemistry demonstrated statistically significant differences in the preservational quality and the propensity of a site to contain fossils. This indicates that resin chemistry does influence preservational variation; however, there is also evidence that resin chemistry alone cannot explain all the variation. To effectively assess the impact of this (and other) variables on fossilisation in amber, and therefore biases in the amber fossil record, a more comprehensive sampling of bioinclusions in amber, coupled with rigorous taphonomic experimentation, is required.

History

Citation

Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2018, pp 203-211

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/School of Geography, Geology and the Environment

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

issn

1755-6910

eissn

1755-6929

Copyright date

2018

Available date

2018-07-15

Publisher version

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/earth-and-environmental-science-transactions-of-royal-society-of-edinburgh/article/review-of-preservational-variation-of-fossil-inclusions-in-amber-of-different-chemical-groups/D361F0487F41236C81716BE3B29DE23B

Notes

The file associated with this record is under embargo until 6 months after publication, in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The full text may be available through the publisher links provided above

Language

en

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