Adolf Seilacher (1925-2014)

摘要

Adolf Seilacher used the simplest of methods - careful observation - to transform our understanding of ancient organisms. His interpretations of the enigmatic Ediacara fossils, which date from about 578 million years ago, before the appearance of the major animal phyla during the Cambrian explosion, explained forms found among the earliest large organisms. Seilacher also showed how trace fossils -those that record biological activity such as the burrowing of marine animals - reveal behavioural traits. He analysed the influences that shape invertebrate morphology and showed how exceptionally preserved fossil assemblages (for which he used the term Lagerstdtten) are the result of conditions such as low oxygen, rapid burial and the effect of microbial films that seal the sediment surface.