Rules of Taphonomy


1. Hard Parts

2. Rapid Burial

3. During the transition from life to death assemblages, disarticulation and chemical alteration (from taphonomic processes) results in loss of species abundances and community diversity and structure

4. Fossil assemblages may consist of a) autochthonous, b) paratochthonous, or c) allochthonous remains

5. Taphonomic loss is most severe in shallow-marine environments

6. Information loss in terrestrial environments is largely the result of transport, disarticulation, sorting, and breakage by water, predators, scavengers, and trampling.

7. Taphonomic processes = time averaging of fossil assemblages

8. Taphonomic processes = information gain

9. Lagerstatten = “snapshots” in time

10. Know thy beast….