Tafonomia

What is Taphonomy? characterize more generally as "the study of

The fossil record is rich in biological and processes of preservation and how they affect

ecological information, but the quality of this information in the fossil record" (Behrensinformation

is uneven and incomplete. The meyer and Kidwell 1985). Since the 1950s, the

same might be said for many types of neo- analysis of postmortem bias in paleobiologic

biological information, but in such cases, sam- data has been one of the prime motivations of

pling biases are imposed by scientists and are the field, but taphonomy has always been a

explicable as part of a research design. With multi-tasking science (e.g., see historical refossils,

natural processes have done the sam- views in Behrensmeyer and Kidwell 1985; Capling

and created the biases before research d6e 1991), and this remains true today. States

begins. Taphonomy seeks to understand these of preservation of biotic remains are not only

processes so that data from the fossil record (1)indicators of how faithfully biological hiscan

be evaluated correctly and applied to pa- tory has been recorded (issues of paleobiologleobiological

and paleoecological questions. ic data fidelity and resolution), but are also (2)

Efremov (1940: p. 85) first defined taphon- testaments to environmental conditions (the

omy as "the study of the transition (in all its aegis of "taphofacies"), and (3) evidence of

details) of animal remains from the biosphere important aspects of biological evolution

into the lithosphere," naming a field that we (skeletal and biochemical novelties, live/ dead interactions and feedbacks), because organisms

not only produce potential fossils but

also are highly effective recyclers of plant and

animal material. Strictly speaking, the logical

limits of taphonomy are defined by its focus

on processes and patterns of fossil preservation',

but in practice, taphonomy serves a

broader role in stimulating research on all

types of biases affecting paleontological information,

including those introduced by collecting,

publication, and curation methods on the

one hand, and stratigraphic incompleteness

on the other (see also Lyman 1994; Donovan

and Paul 1998; Holland this volume).

Taphonomy today is focused first and foremost

on a geobiological understanding of the

earth, grounded on the postmortem processes

that recycle biological materials and affect

our ability-positively and negatively-to

reconstruct past environments and biotas.

The classic flowchart of taphonomic transformations

(Fig. 1) is now underpinned by a

much fuller and quantitative understanding

of interim states and pathways of fossilization,

owing to an explosion of interest in the

field since the early 1980s. Some of the most

notable advances have been in (1) microbial,

biogeochemical, and larger-scale controls on

the preservation of different tissue types; (2)

processes that concentrate biological remains;

(3)the spatio-temporal resolution and

ecological fidelity of species assemblages;

and (4) the outlines of "megabiases" (largescale

patterns in the quality of the fossil record

that affect paleobiologic analysis at provincial

to global levels and at timescales usually

exceeding

...