A novel tool to untangle the ecology and fossil preservation knot in exceptionally preserved biotas

Understanding the functioning of extinct ecosystems is a complicated knot ecological, evolutionary, and preservational strands that must be untangled. For instance, anatomical behavioral differences can profoundly alter fossilization pathways. This particularly true in exceptionally preserved soft-bodied biotas record earliest phases animal evolution during Cambrian Explosion Ordovician Radiation. Herein, novel method data partitioning based on probabilistic modelling developed to examine these processes for Walcott Quarry, Burgess Shale, Canada (510Ma), Fezouata Morocco (c. 475Ma). The shows mechanism soft-tissue preservation Quarry ecologically selective, favoring endobenthos. not found Shale. Taken concert with bioturbation data, new model comparative sedimentary flow dynamics. suggests Radiation most exceptional fossils sites still calibrated against each other understand unfolding evolutionary events ecological structuring ancient communities.