Below the Sediment-Water-Interface: A New Frontier in Taphonomic Research

Abstract

Other| April 01, 2001 Below the Sediment-Water-Interface: A New Frontier in Taphonomic Research SALLY E. WALKER SALLY E. WALKER 1Sally Walker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geology and cross appointed in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia. Sally has fond early childhood memories of playing in mud which continues to this day (she is pictured with her favorite device: “Patrick's Guillotine” specifically designed to core marsh sediments). She was born in the oil fields of Ventura, California. She received her B.A. at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley. Her research interests include burial processes, ecological stasis in modern and fossil Caribbean molluscs and their epi- and endobionts, taphonomy of outer shelf to deep-sea gastropods, and the paleoecology of terrestrial gastropods. Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar PALAIOS (2001) 16 (2): 113–114. https://doi.org/10.1669/0883-1351(2001)016<0113:BTSWIA>2.0.CO;2 Article history first online: 03 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation SALLY E. WALKER; Below the Sediment-Water-Interface: A New Frontier in Taphonomic Research. PALAIOS 2001;; 16 (2): 113–114. doi: https://doi.org/10.1669/0883-1351(2001)016<0113:BTSWIA>2.0.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentBy SocietyPALAIOS Search Advanced Search As an undergraduate and then as a graduate student, I repeatedly came across in the paleontological literature what I considered to be the “paleontological mantra”—quick and rapid burial ensured that an organism might be preserved in the fossil record. I kept looking for tests of this “observation” but found little to appease my curiosity about this mysterious, yet profound process. As a graduate student, I buried shells with epibionts below the anoxic zone in a mudflat to examine the selective preservation of encrusting organisms that associated with hermit crab-inhabited shells. Additionally, I avidly read about descriptive analyses of taphonomic degradation... You do not currently have access to this article.