The interpretation of flattened fossils remains a major challenge due to compression of their complex anatomies during fossilization, making critical anatomical features invisible or hardly discernible. Key features are often hidden under greatly preserved decay prone tissues, or an unpreparable sedimentary matrix. A method offering access to such anatomical features is of paramount interest to...

During fossilization, the remains of extinct organisms are subjected to taphonomic and diagenetic processes. As a result, fossils show a variety of preservational artefacts, which can range from small breaks and cracks, disarticulation and fragmentation, to the loss and deformation of skeletal structures and other hard parts. Such artefacts can present a considerable problem, as the preserved m...

Neoichnological observations help refine paleoichnological records. The present study reports extensive observations on the distribution, morphology, occurrence and association of burrows and fecal pellets of the polychaete Nereis diversicolor in the Kundalika Estuary on the west coast of India. Our holistic study of these modern-day traces suggests it to be a complex trace arising from domichn...

Organic-walled microfossils provide the best insights into the composition and evolution of the biosphere through the first 80 percent of Earth history. The mechanism of microfossil preservation affects the quality of biological information retained and informs understanding of early Earth palaeo-environments. We here show that 1 billion-year-old microfossils from the non-marine Torridon Group ...

Evaporation of silica-rich geothermal waters is one of the main abiotic drivers of the formation of silica sinters around hot springs. An important role in sinter structural development is also played by the indigenous microbial communities, which are fossilized and eventually encased in the silica matrix. The combination of these two factors results in a wide variety of sinter structures and f...

On a global scale, athalassic inland salt lakes are abundant, albeit restricted to semiarid and arid climates. La Salada de Chiprana is unique in Western Europe, because it is a permanent and relatively deep (up to 5.6 m) hypersaline lake (40–90 g total dissolved salt L–1) since 1700 AD. It forms part of a cultural landscape, which imposes a chal‐ lenge for management. The aim of this paper is ...

Taphonomic studies were carried out at Laguna Flecha Negra locality (Bahía Laura Complex, Middle–Late Jurassic), Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. Sedimentary facies and preservational styles defined to recognize plant taphofacies in the studied sequence. Eleven identified sources within a volcanic geothermal system are proposed. Plant remains of autochthonous para-autochthonous origin best prese...

The present study aims to contribute the investigation of role Phoenicians in spreading and trade grapevine through morphometric analysis grape pips. Waterlogged charred samples were selected from three Iron Age sites Western Mediterranean: Motya (Sicily, Italy), Nuraghe S’Urachi (Sardinia, Italy) Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). While only is a Phoenician foundation, all nevertheless associated with...

Two fundamental misfortunes befell the Jewish people as a direct result of the destruction of the Second Temple and the subsequent exile: the codification and writing of the oral law into the form of the Mishna, and the establishment of the synagogue as the nuclear core of a Jewish community. The former resulted in the fossilization of a vibrant oral tradition meant to live and breathe with the...