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Palaeoecology Of The Middle Cambrian Raymond Quarry Fauna, Burgess Shale, British Columbia, Matthew Galen Devereux

Digitized Theses

An assemblage if over 9000 systematically collected fossils from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale was analyzed in order to resolve the palaeoecology. Sediment and fossil evidence both show that the constituent fauna was largely autochthonous. The 'standing crop' of organisms preserved with each burial event was affected by variable taphonomic factors both laterally and temporally, but information loss appears to have been minimized. An autecological review of the trophic nucleus provides new insights with regard to behavior of the organisms, including life habits and feeding strategies. Unlike their modern representatives, priapulid worms (or at least Ottoia) appear to have …