Envisaged Projects of the Ulm team CORE members

1) Description of odds and ends (mainly isolated arthropod legs and fragments)

The large material contains numerous specimen of unclear affinities to known forms, isolated limbs surely belonging to animals not described yet, but completely uncertain. They shall be documented some stage to demonstrate the variation in the material, plasticity of life forms and the species abundance in the 'Orsten' meiofaunas. At present we estimate that the upper Middle to Upper Cambrian 'Orsten' of Sweden comprised more than 60 different species, the finds alltogether outrange 80, so that 'Orsten' occurrences, although "just representing a window into the meiofauna" have a species record as high as the other Cambrian lagerstätten.

At least part of this might be investigated by Christopher Castellani if we receive the grant from the DFG for this. Possibly he will also collaborate with our new member Jakob Vinther from the Yale University, U.S.A., and Stefan Bengtson from Stockholm, Sweden.

3) Prospection for new occurrences of 'Orsten'-type faunas

Further growth of our C.O.R.E. group in order to stabilize our Center’s unique abitily to carry out thorough, detailed and well based biological analysis of 'Orsten'-type fossils. Exploration was thought to become the task of Andreas B. and Martin Stein, who, with respect to their geological and palaeontological background, have much expertise in field work and laboratory processing, aiming at finding new 'Orsten'-type occurrences worldwide. Since things have changed rapidly in the meantime, we rely more on our other C.O.R.E. members are doing further exploration, particularly our Chinese and UK colleagues.

Andreas M., Dieter W. and Joachim H. mainly will continue with the description and analysis of the fossil content, in collaboration with Carolin H., Christopher C. and Yu Liu, and, of course, with our international C.O.R.E. partners. Andreas M. will write a chapter on the nemathelminth fossil record for a German textbook.

4) Further work

A further envisaged paper in this respect will discuss the nature of the hypostome and labrum.

Our research project on Chengjiang/Maotianshan-shale fossils in co-operation with colleagues China from China, supported by the DFG and the NSFC, expired in summer 2005 (see list of publications). Continuation on such material is planned in the one or other way, but is still not set up.

Another planned, but not clearly formulated project is work on arthropod fossils in the Devonian Rhynie Chert on invitation by Hans Kerp and Hagen Hass from Münster, Germany, which might be connected to the activities of Carolin and Joachim.

5) Lastly, something on the genesis, taphonomy and preservation of 'Orsten' Lagerstätten

The project, carried out primarily under geological and palaeontological perspective by Andreas Braun and synthesized by contributions of all group members aims at further research on the origin of the Orsten fossils. Analysis of sedimentary, petrographical as well as micropalaeontological data lead to a new sedimentary and taphonomic model of the Orsten Lagerstaette, that fits well into the existing published data on the genesis and sedimentary environment of the Swedish Alum shale sequence, in which the Orsten concretions occur. The model explains observations and peculiarities of the differential fossil distribution and fossil documentation. Publication of the results is currently being prepared. Longer term aim of such projects is not only a well founded explanation of the Orsten-Lagerstaette sensu strictu, but to be able to carry out further prospective search of 'Orsten_-type fossils on strata other than the upper Cambrian Alum Shale by using the data and experiences collected.