Wisconsin

A new Silurian (Llandoverian) biota from Wisconsin with a significant soft-bodied and lightly sclerotized component is dominated by arthropods and worms. The fauna includes the earliest well-preserved xiphosure, a possible marine uniramian, three new arthropods of uncertain affinity, and possibly the first Paleozoic leech. This may be only the second locality to yield a conodont animal. Lack of a normal shelly fauna suggests an unusual environment. The discovery adds significantly to the few such exceptionally preserved faunas known from Lower Paleozoic rocks.

@article{doi101126science2284700715,
    author = "Mikulic, D G and Briggs, D E and Kluessendorf, J",
    title = "A silurian soft-bodied biota.",
    year = "1985",
    journal = "Science (New York, N.Y.)",
    abstract = "A new Silurian (Llandoverian) biota from Wisconsin with a significant soft-bodied and lightly sclerotized component is dominated by arthropods and worms. The fauna includes the earliest well-preserved xiphosure, a possible marine uniramian, three new arthropods of uncertain affinity, and possibly the first Paleozoic leech. This may be only the second locality to yield a conodont animal. Lack of a normal shelly fauna suggests an unusual environment. The discovery adds significantly to the few such exceptionally preserved faunas known from Lower Paleozoic rocks.",
    url = "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17841003/",
    doi = "10.1126/science.228.4700.715",
    pmid = "17841003"
}

A new biota including lightly sclerotized and soft-bodied organisms occurs in finely laminated argillaceous dolomites of late Llandoverian age in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. This discovery fills a gap between well known Cambrian and Devonian Konservat Lagerstatten. The biota is dominated by arthropods. A dalmanitid is the most numerous of 13 genera of trilobites; the crustaceans include phyllocarids and ostracods; the chelicerates are represented by the earliest well preserved xiphosure and the fauna includes a possible marine uniramian. The earliest representative of the enigmatic class Thylacocephala, and at least three arthropods of uncertain affinity are also present. There are at least four worm taxa including a possible leech and a papillate annelid. The locality has also yielded a conodont animal, Panderodus. Graptolites and conulariids are common, but echinoderms, brachiopods, bryozoans, corals and molluscs are extremely rare or absent. The unusual composition and exceptional preservation of this assemblage indicates that the biota lived and died in environments rarely represented in the Silurian fossil record.

@article{mikulic1985a,
    author = "Mikulic, D. G. and Briggs, Derek Ernest Gilmor and Kluessendorf, Joanne",
    title = "A new exceptionally preserved biota from the Lower Silurian of Wisconsin, U. S. A",
    year = "1985",
    journal = "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences",
    abstract = "A new biota including lightly sclerotized and soft-bodied organisms occurs in finely laminated argillaceous dolomites of late Llandoverian age in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. This discovery fills a gap between well known Cambrian and Devonian Konservat Lagerstatten. The biota is dominated by arthropods. A dalmanitid is the most numerous of 13 genera of trilobites; the crustaceans include phyllocarids and ostracods; the chelicerates are represented by the earliest well preserved xiphosure and the fauna includes a possible marine uniramian. The earliest representative of the enigmatic class Thylacocephala, and at least three arthropods of uncertain affinity are also present. There are at least four worm taxa including a possible leech and a papillate annelid. The locality has also yielded a conodont animal, Panderodus. Graptolites and conulariids are common, but echinoderms, brachiopods, bryozoans, corals and molluscs are extremely rare or absent. The unusual composition and exceptional preservation of this assemblage indicates that the biota lived and died in environments rarely represented in the Silurian fossil record.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1985.0140",
    doi = "10.1098/rstb.1985.0140",
    number = "1148",
    pages = "75-85",
    volume = "311"
}

@article{mikulic1985a1,
    author = "Mikulic, D. G. and Briggs, D. E. G. and Kluessendorf, J",
    title = "A new exceptionally preserved biota from the Lower Silurian of Wisconsin, USA",
    year = "1985",
    journal = "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London B, v. 311, p. 75- 85",
    note = "talkorigins\_source = {true}; raw\_reference = {Mikulic, D. G., Briggs, D. E. G., and Kluessendorf, J., 1985, A new exceptionally preserved biota from the Lower Silurian of Wisconsin, USA: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London B, v. 311, p. 75- 85.}"
}

@article{yang2009an,
    author = "Yang, Qiang and Zhao, YunYun and Ren, Dong",
    title = "An exceptionally well-preserved fossil Kalligrammatid from the Jehol Biota",
    year = "2009",
    journal = "Science Bulletin",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0284-2",
    doi = "10.1007/s11434-009-0284-2",
    number = "10",
    pages = "1732-1737",
    volume = "54"
}

@article{botting2011welsh,
    author = "Botting, Joseph P. and Muir, Lucy A. and Sutton, Mark D. and Barnie, Talfan",
    title = "Welsh gold: A new exceptionally preserved pyritized Ordovician biota",
    year = "2011",
    journal = "Geology",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1130/g32143.1",
    doi = "10.1130/g32143.1",
    number = "9",
    pages = "879-882",
    volume = "39"
}

Phyllocarids of the Waukesha Biota were systematically and taphonomically evaluated. Three Ceratiocaris species are present in the biota: C. macroura Collette and Rudkin, 2010; C. papilio Salter in Murchison, 1859; and C. pusilla Matthew, 1889. Specimens range in completeness from nearly complete, including the cephalic to caudal regions, to isolated telsons and furcae. Evidence of Salter’s position is present in only three specimens. Relatively complete specimens are interpreted to represent corpses, rather than molts; whereas specimens including only the pleon and caudal region, or caudal region, and specimens with evidence of Salter’s position likely represent exuviae. Specimens are preserved essentially as compression fossils exhibiting two types of preserved cuticle: brown inner cuticle, which tends to be impressed over the topography of bedding planes on which specimens are preserved, and blue-gray phosphatized cuticle exhibiting sub-millimeter scale relief. Cuticle phosphatization likely occurred during early diagenesis. The presence of characteristic near-shore species and C. pusilla, only known from turbidite facies, interpreted to possibly represent a marine trough, suggests that the Waukesha phyllocarid assemblage might represent a transported assemblage, rather than a biota, or that C. pusilla from the Jones Creek Formation was transported basinward in sediment gravity flows.

@article{jones2015ceratiocaris,
    author = "Jones, Wade T. and Feldmann, Rodney M. and Schweitzer, Carrie E.",
    title = "Ceratiocaris from the Silurian Waukesha Biota, Wisconsin",
    year = "2015",
    journal = "Journal of Paleontology",
    abstract = "Phyllocarids of the Waukesha Biota were systematically and taphonomically evaluated. Three Ceratiocaris species are present in the biota: C. macroura Collette and Rudkin, 2010; C. papilio Salter in Murchison, 1859; and C. pusilla Matthew, 1889. Specimens range in completeness from nearly complete, including the cephalic to caudal regions, to isolated telsons and furcae. Evidence of Salter’s position is present in only three specimens. Relatively complete specimens are interpreted to represent corpses, rather than molts; whereas specimens including only the pleon and caudal region, or caudal region, and specimens with evidence of Salter’s position likely represent exuviae. Specimens are preserved essentially as compression fossils exhibiting two types of preserved cuticle: brown inner cuticle, which tends to be impressed over the topography of bedding planes on which specimens are preserved, and blue-gray phosphatized cuticle exhibiting sub-millimeter scale relief. Cuticle phosphatization likely occurred during early diagenesis. The presence of characteristic near-shore species and C. pusilla, only known from turbidite facies, interpreted to possibly represent a marine trough, suggests that the Waukesha phyllocarid assemblage might represent a transported assemblage, rather than a biota, or that C. pusilla from the Jones Creek Formation was transported basinward in sediment gravity flows.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2016.22",
    doi = "10.1017/jpa.2016.22",
    number = "6",
    pages = "1007-1021",
    volume = "89"
}

@article{tinn2015kalania,
    author = "Tinn, Oive and Mastik, Viirika and Ainsaar, Leho and Meidla, Tõnu",
    title = "Kalania pusilla, an exceptionally preserved non-calcified alga from the lower Silurian (Aeronian, Llandovery) of Estonia",
    year = "2015",
    journal = "Palaeoworld",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palwor.2014.12.001",
    doi = "10.1016/j.palwor.2014.12.001",
    number = "1-2",
    pages = "207-214",
    volume = "24"
}

@article{zong2017fentou,
    author = "Zong, Rui-Wen and Liu, Qi and Wei, Fan and Gong, Yi-Ming",
    title = "Fentou Biota: A Llandovery (Silurian) Shallow-Water Exceptionally Preserved Biota from Wuhan, Central China",
    year = "2017",
    journal = "The Journal of Geology",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1086/692331",
    doi = "10.1086/692331",
    number = "4",
    pages = "469-478",
    volume = "125"
}

@inproceedings{andrahman2018exceptionally,
    author = "Rahman, Imran A. and Briggs, Derek E.G. and Siveter, David J. and Siveter, Derek J. and Sutton, Mark D. and Thompson, Jeffrey R.",
    title = "EXCEPTIONALLY PRESERVED ECHINODERMS FROM THE SILURIAN HEREFORDSHIRE LAGERSTÄTTE, UK",
    year = "2018",
    booktitle = "Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1130/abs/2018am-320294",
    doi = "10.1130/abs/2018am-320294"
}

@article{wendruff2020paleobiology,
    author = "Wendruff, Andrew J. and Babcock, Loren E. and Kluessendorf, Joanne and Mikulic, Donald G.",
    title = "Paleobiology and taphonomy of exceptionally preserved organisms from the Waukesha Biota (Silurian), Wisconsin, USA",
    year = "2020",
    journal = "Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.109631",
    doi = "10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.109631",
    pages = "109631",
    volume = "546"
}

@inproceedings{andmikulic2023trilobite,
    author = "Mikulic, Donald and Kluessendorf, Joanne",
    title = "TRILOBITE TAPHONOMY OF THE SILURIAN WAUKESHA BIOTA OF SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN",
    year = "2023",
    booktitle = "Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1130/abs/2023am-396035",
    doi = "10.1130/abs/2023am-396035"
}