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….