Premium
Beecher's Trilobite Bed
Author(s) -
BRIGGS DEREK E. G.,
EDGECOMBE GREGORY D.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
geology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.188
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1365-2451
pISSN - 0266-6979
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2451.1993.tb01107.x
Subject(s) - trilobite , ordovician , geology , paleontology , extinction event , paleozoic , extinction (optical mineralogy) , biological dispersal , population , demography , sociology
Beecher's Trilobite Bed in the Upper Ordovician of New York State has yielded some of the most completely preserved trilobites. Abundant specimens of Triarthrus, and fewer of Cryptolithus, were buried in a single catastrophic influx of sediment, and the limbs and other features are preserved in pyrite. A recent re‐excavation of the bed provided an opportunity to investigate the controls on the pyritization of soft tissues, an extremely rare phenomenon. Larval and juvenile specimens are common in the Trilobite Bed, allowing the life histories of the trilobites to be pieced together. The nature of the transition from larva to adult was significant in determining the trilobites' chances of surviving the mass extinction at the end of the Ordovician .