Cambrian
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...
Lagerstätte
A Lagerstätte (, from ''Lager'' 'storage, lair' '' Stätte'' 'place'; plural ''Lagerstätten'') is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These for ...
in
Peary Land
Peary Land is a peninsula in northern Greenland, extending into the Arctic Ocean. It reaches from Victoria Fjord in the west to Independence Fjord in the south and southeast, and to the Arctic Ocean in the north, with Cape Morris Jesup, the north ...
,
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
. The Sirius Passet Lagerstätte was named after the Sirius sledge patrol that operates in North Greenland. It comprises six places in
Nansen Land
Nansen Land is a peninsula in far northwestern Greenland. It is a part of the Northeast Greenland National Park.
The Arctic wolf is present in the peninsula. The northern shore facing the Lincoln sea slopes evenly and is fertile for the area, bei ...
, on the east shore of
J.P. Koch Fjord
J.P. Koch Fjord is a fjord in Peary Land, northern Greenland. To the west, the fjord opens into the Lincoln Sea of the Arctic Ocean.
It is named after Danish captain and explorer of the Arctic Johan Peter Koch (1870 – 1928), Geography
The fjord ...
in the far north of Greenland. It was discovered in 1984 by A. Higgins of the Geological Survey of Greenland. A preliminary account was published by
Simon Conway Morris
Simon Conway Morris (born 1951) is an English palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist, and astrobiologist known for his study of the fossils of the Burgess Shale and the Cambrian explosion. The results of these discoveries were celebrated in ...
and others in 1987 and expeditions led by
J. S. Peel
''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...
and Conway Morris have returned to the site several times between 1989 and the present. A field collection of perhaps 10,000 fossil specimens has been amassed. It is a part of the
Buen Formation
The Buen Formation is a geologic formation and Lagerstätte in Peary Land, North Greenland. The shale preserves fossils dating back to the Early Cambrian period (Atdabanian in the local timescale, about 520 to 513 Ma).
The fauna is inevitably compared to that of the
Burgess Shale
The Burgess Shale is a fossil-bearing deposit exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. At old (middle Cambrian), it is one of the earliest foss ...
, although it is probably ten to fifteen million years older – vs. ) – and more closely contemporaneous with the fauna of the
Maotianshan shales
The Maotianshan Shales are a series of Cambrian, Early Cambrian deposits in the Chiungchussu Formation, famous for their ''Lagerstätte, Konservat Lagerstätten'', deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces. ...
from
Chengjiang
Chengjiang (; earlier Tchinkiang) is a city located in Yuxi, Yunnan Province, China, just north of Fuxian Lake.
Administrative divisions
Chengjiang City has 2 subdistricts and 4 townships.
;2 subdistricts
* Fenglu ()
* Longjie ()
;4 towns
C ...
, which are dated to .
Preservation
The preservation of the Sirius Passet is traditionally considered to represent
silicification
In geology, silicification is a petrification process in which silica-rich fluids seep into the voids of Earth materials, e.g., rocks, wood, bones, shells, and replace the original materials with silica (SiO2). Silica is a naturally existing and ...
associated with a
death mask
A death mask is a likeness (typically in wax or plaster cast) of a person's face after their death, usually made by taking a cast or impression from the corpse. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits. It ...
, recalling the 'Ediacara-type' preservation of the Precambrian
Ediacara biota
The Ediacaran (; formerly Vendian) biota is a taxonomic period classification that consists of all life forms that were present on Earth during the Ediacaran Period (). These were composed of enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped, mostly sessi ...
. A 2022 study suggested that the original preservation mode was
phosphatisation Phosphatic fossilization has occurred in unusual circumstances to preserve some extremely high-resolution microfossils in which careful preparation can even reveal preserved cellular structures. Such microscopic fossils are only visible under the s ...
that was later altered by low-grade
metamorphism
Metamorphism is the transformation of existing rock (the protolith) to rock with a different mineral composition or texture. Metamorphism takes place at temperatures in excess of , and often also at elevated pressure or in the presence of chem ...
with a peak temperature of during the
Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...
Ellesmerian orogeny, which resulted in widespread mineral replacement.
Geochemical analysis indicates that the fossils lived close to the boundary of an oxygen minimum zone, possibly being preserved in oxygen-starved periods.
IUGS geological heritage site
In respect of the importance of the exceptionally preserved fossils in our understanding of the event, the 'Cambrian Explosion in Sirius Passet' was included by the
International Union of Geological Sciences
The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of geology.
About
The IUGS was founded in 1961 and is a Scientific Union member of the Inte ...
(IUGS) in its assemblage of 100 'geological heritage sites' around the world in a listing published in October 2022. The organisation defines an 'IUGS Geological Heritage Site' as 'a key place with geological elements and/or processes of international scientific relevance, used as a reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history.'
Fauna
Although the fauna has not yet been fully described, it is known to consist of a moderate number of arthropods and sponges, and rare representatives of other groups. It has yielded the problematic taxon ''
Halkieria
The halkieriids are a group of fossil organisms from the Lower to Middle Cambrian. Their eponymous genus is ''Halkieria'' , which has been found on almost every continent in Lower to Mid Cambrian deposits, forming a large component of the smal ...
'', and the
Panarthropods
Panarthropoda is a proposed animal clade containing the extant phyla Arthropoda, Tardigrada (water bears) and Onychophora (velvet worms). Panarthropods also include extinct marine legged worms known as lobopodians ("Lobopodia"), a paraphyletic ...
''
Kerygmachela
''Kerygmachela kierkegaardi'' is a gilled lobopodian from the Cambrian Stage 3 aged Sirius Passet Lagerstätte in northern Greenland. Its anatomy strongly suggests that it, along with its relative ''Pambdelurion whittingtoni'', was a close relat ...
'' and ''
Pambdelurion
''Pambdelurion'' is an extinct genus of panarthropod from the Cambrian aged Sirius Passet site in northern Greenland. Like the morphologically similar ''Kerygmachela'' from the same locality, ''Pambdelurion'' is thought to be closely related to ar ...
'', all of which have played prominent roles in discussions about the origins of the modern animal phyla.