PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Fossils constitute an inestimable archive of past life on the Earth. However, the stochastic processes driving decay and fossilization and overwhelmingly distorting this archive, are challenging to interpret. Consequently, concepts of exceptional or poor preservation are often subjective or arbitrarily defined. Here, we offer an alternative way to think about fossilization. We propose a mathematical description of decay and fossilization relying on the change in the relative frequency and characteristics of biogenic objects (e.g. atoms, functional groups, molecules, body parts and organisms) within an organism-fossil system. This description partitions taphonomic changes into three categories: gain, loss and alteration of state. Although the changes undergone by organisms through decay, preservation and alteration vary a lot for different organisms under different conditions, we provide a unified formalism which can be applied directly in the comparison of different assemblages, experiments and fossils. Our expression is closely related to George R. Price\'s famous equation for the change in evolutionary traits and can be adapted to the study of palaeontological systems and many others.
摘要：
化石构成了地球上过去生命的不可估量的档案。然而,随机过程驱动衰变和石化，压倒性地扭曲了这个档案，很难解释。因此,特殊或不良保存的概念通常是主观的或任意定义的。这里,我们提供了一种思考石化的替代方法。我们提出了衰变和石化的数学描述，依赖于生物物体的相对频率和特征的变化（例如原子，功能组，分子，身体部位和生物体)在生物体-化石系统内。本说明将语言变化分为三类：增益，国家的丧失和改变。虽然生物体通过腐烂经历的变化，不同生物在不同条件下的保存和改变差异很大，我们提供了统一的形式主义，可以直接应用于不同组合的比较，实验和化石。我们的表达式与GeorgeR.Price著名的进化性状变化方程密切相关，可以适应古生物学系统和许多其他系统的研究。
