Lagerstätte

Ask any invertebrate paleontologist about lagerstätte, and chances are they'll bandy about the same few names: Burgess Shale, Hunsruck, and Solnhofen. Find yourself a paleoentomologist, and you might get a slightly different answer: Florissant, Elmo, Green River. A crinoid worker might add Crawfordsville. The point is that out of all of the rocks deposited all over the world there aren't many lagerstätte. The snapshot these deposits provide is immensely valuable to paleontologists in terms of diversity and paleoecology. To celebrate these deposits, I will discuss many lagerstätte in some detail over the coming weeks.