Exceptional fossil preservation : a unique view on the evolution of marine life

Typically the process of fossilization produces significant information loss on the anatomy of ancient organisms.

However, occasionally fossilization results in truly extraordinary preservation.

Such fossil deposits, known as "Lagerstatten," were commonly treated as scientific curiosities.

This photographically rich volume provides a synthetic overview of a wide sample of Lagerstatten from marine environments reaching back in time to the Precambrian, more than 500 million years ago.

These occurrences of exceptional fossil preservation are providing scientists with a new source of evidence to understand how life has evolved in the Earth's oceans.