Taphonomic

In 1949, vertebrate paleontologist Ivan Yefremov, introduced the concept of taphonomy to describe the transition of animal remains from the biosphere into the lithosphere. The term taphonomy comes from the Greek taphos, τάφος meaning "burial" or "death", and nomos, νόμος meaning "law".

Taphonomic phenomena are grouped into two phases: biostratinomy; events that occur between death of the organism and the burial, and diagenesis; events that occur after the burial. Since Efremov's definition, taphonomy has expanded to include the fossilization of organic materials, inorganic materials, and both cultural and environmental influences.

This is a multidisciplinary concept and is used in slightly different contexts throughout different fields of study. Fields that employ the concept of taphonomy include:

There are five main stages of taphonomy: disarticulation, dispersal, accumulation, fossilization, and mechanical alteration. The first stage, disarticulation, occurs as the organism decays and the bones are no longer held together by the flesh and tendons of the organism. Dispersal is the separation of pieces of an organism caused by natural events (i.e. floods, scavengers etc.). Accumulation occurs when there is a buildup of organic and/or inorganic materials in one location (scavengers or human behavior). When mineral rich groundwater permeates organic materials and fills the empty spaces, a fossil is formed. The final stage of taphonomy is mechanical alteration; this is processes that physically alter the remains (e.i. Freeze-thaw, compaction, transport, burial).

Taphonomy has undergone an explosion of interest since the 1980s, with research focusing on certain areas.

One motivation behind taphonomy is to better understand biases present in the fossil record. Fossils are ubiquitous in sedimentary rocks, yet paleontologists cannot draw the most accurate conclusions about the lives and ecology of the fossilized organisms without knowing about the processes involved in their fossilization. For example, if a fossil assemblage contains more of one type of fossil than another, one can infer either that the organism was present in greater numbers, or that its remains were more resistant to decomposition.

During the late twentieth century, taphonomic data began to be applied to other paleontological subfields such as paleobiology, paleoceanography, ichnology (the study of trace fossils) and biostratigraphy. By coming to understand the oceanographic and ethological implications of observed taphonomic patterns, paleontologists have been able to provide new and meaningful interpretations and correlations that would have otherwise remained obscure in the fossil record.

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