The Paris biota is an exceptionally diverse
Early Triassic (approximately 249
million years ago)[1] fossil assemblage described in
2017 from the Lower Shale Member of the
Thaynes Group. It was first discovered in Paris Canyon, west of the town of
Paris in
Bear Lake County, southeastern
Idaho, United States.[2] This biota was later also found in coeval and slightly younger
beds in northeastern
Nevada (
Elko County) and Bear Lake and
Caribou counties, southeastern Idaho.[3]
The preservation of Paris biota organisms is considered taxon-dependent, but is not fully understood.[5] The study of some fossils could be improved using
synchrotron μXRF imaging.[6]
Most organisms of the Paris biota were described in a thematic issue of the journal
Geobios in
2019,[7] but new taxa were also subsequently described.
In
2023, another diverse post-extinction biota was presented from South China, the
Dienerian aged
Guiyang biota,[8] which includes fossils belonging to twelve
classes and 19 orders. The Early Triassic is generally considered as an environmentally unstable and diversity-poor interval,[2] highlighting the importance of the discovery of such diverse
lagerstätten.
The following
taxa (animals sorted by phylum) were either reported or described from the Paris biota (not listed are the foraminifera and conodonts, which have not yet been described):
^Brayard, Arnaud; Fara, Emmanuel; Escarguel, Gilles (2019). "Foreword for the thematic issue "The Paris Biota (Bear Lake County, Idaho, USA): an exceptional window on the Early Triassic marine life"". Geobios. 54: 1–3.
Bibcode:
2019Geobi..54....1B.
doi:
10.1016/j.geobios.2019.04.009.
S2CID146125332.
^Dai, Xu; Davies, Joshua H.F.L.; Yuan, Zhiwei; Brayard, Arnaud; Ovtcharova, Maria; Xu, Guanghui; Liu, Xiaokang; Smith, Christopher P.A.; Schweitzer, Carrie E.; Li, Mingtao; Perrot, Morgann G.; Jiang, Shouyi; Miao, Luyi; Cao, Yiran; Yan, Jia; Bai, Ruoyu; Wang, Fengyu; Guo, Wei; Song, Huyue; Tian, Li; Dal Corso, Jacopo; Liu, Yuting; Chu, Daoliang; Song, Haijun (2023). "A Mesozoic fossil lagerstätte from 250.8 million years ago shows a modern-type marine ecosystem". Science. 379 (6632): 567–572.
Bibcode:
2023Sci...379..567D.
doi:
10.1126/science.adf1622.
PMID36758082.
S2CID256697946.
The Paris biota is an exceptionally diverse
Early Triassic (approximately 249
million years ago)[1] fossil assemblage described in
2017 from the Lower Shale Member of the
Thaynes Group. It was first discovered in Paris Canyon, west of the town of
Paris in
Bear Lake County, southeastern
Idaho, United States.[2] This biota was later also found in coeval and slightly younger
beds in northeastern
Nevada (
Elko County) and Bear Lake and
Caribou counties, southeastern Idaho.[3]
The preservation of Paris biota organisms is considered taxon-dependent, but is not fully understood.[5] The study of some fossils could be improved using
synchrotron μXRF imaging.[6]
Most organisms of the Paris biota were described in a thematic issue of the journal
Geobios in
2019,[7] but new taxa were also subsequently described.
In
2023, another diverse post-extinction biota was presented from South China, the
Dienerian aged
Guiyang biota,[8] which includes fossils belonging to twelve
classes and 19 orders. The Early Triassic is generally considered as an environmentally unstable and diversity-poor interval,[2] highlighting the importance of the discovery of such diverse
lagerstätten.
The following
taxa (animals sorted by phylum) were either reported or described from the Paris biota (not listed are the foraminifera and conodonts, which have not yet been described):
^Brayard, Arnaud; Fara, Emmanuel; Escarguel, Gilles (2019). "Foreword for the thematic issue "The Paris Biota (Bear Lake County, Idaho, USA): an exceptional window on the Early Triassic marine life"". Geobios. 54: 1–3.
Bibcode:
2019Geobi..54....1B.
doi:
10.1016/j.geobios.2019.04.009.
S2CID146125332.
^Dai, Xu; Davies, Joshua H.F.L.; Yuan, Zhiwei; Brayard, Arnaud; Ovtcharova, Maria; Xu, Guanghui; Liu, Xiaokang; Smith, Christopher P.A.; Schweitzer, Carrie E.; Li, Mingtao; Perrot, Morgann G.; Jiang, Shouyi; Miao, Luyi; Cao, Yiran; Yan, Jia; Bai, Ruoyu; Wang, Fengyu; Guo, Wei; Song, Huyue; Tian, Li; Dal Corso, Jacopo; Liu, Yuting; Chu, Daoliang; Song, Haijun (2023). "A Mesozoic fossil lagerstätte from 250.8 million years ago shows a modern-type marine ecosystem". Science. 379 (6632): 567–572.
Bibcode:
2023Sci...379..567D.
doi:
10.1126/science.adf1622.
PMID36758082.
S2CID256697946.