The fossil record of ancient life is, in general, poor. Certainly, fossils are abundant in many
rock successions and may reveal remarkable details about evolution and environmental
change, but they typically consist of disarticulated or broken skeletal material, such
as shells, bones and teeth. Even worse, the record of entirely (or largely) soft-bodied
organisms, such as jellyfish and worms, is extremely scant, despite the fact that such
animals dominate modern marine environments and presumably did so in the past. The
reason is obvious — such organisms are highly susceptible to post-mortem decay and
typically decompose more rapidly than the ‘normal’ processes of fossilisation operate. This
significantly blurs our view of ancient life, with obvious consequences for those interested in
understanding evolution and past ecosystems
