Taphonomy of soft-tissue preservation in ferricrete at the McGraths Flat Lagerstätte

作者：Tara Djokic, Patrick M. Smith, J. R. Havig, Michael Frese, Paulo Vasconcelos, Jochen J. Brocks, Michael J. Ellwood, David J. Cantrill, D. McGeeney, R. E. Pogson, C.G. Ryan, Yu Wang, Ai Duc Nguyen, MATILDA. L. ROSAS, Matthew R. McCurry · 发表于：Gondwana Research · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.gr.2025.08.012 · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Geology and Paleoclimatology Research、Paleopathology and ancient diseases、Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

Locating new fossil sites with exceptional soft-tissue preservation is vital for addressing taphonomic bias and accurately reconstructing the fossil record. McGraths Flat, a Miocene rainforest-lake Konservat-Lagerstätte, uniquely preserves nanometre-scale soft-tissue structures in laminated Fe-oxyhydroxide (goethite) or ‘ferricrete’. However, constraints on the source of Fe, depositional conditions, and mechanisms that drove the exceptional soft-tissue preservation were lacking. Here, we demonstrate that warm, seasonally wet rainforest conditions generated acidic soils and transported dissolved Fe(II) from weathering basaltic bedrock into an oxbow lake. Fe(III)-oxyhydroxide precipitation then drove fossil burial and mineralization. Our findings suggest that ‘McGraths Flat-type’ fossil preservation may be common and could represent an untapped record of life on land.