Gary Gilligan sent in a link to a BBC programme, Fossil Wonderlands: Nature's Hidden Treasures, at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03xsfrq/fossil-wonderlands-natures-hidden… … which provides confirmation organisms can be buried alive very quickly, and fossilising over the course of time. In this episode it is the Cambrian that is discussed – and Richard Fortey, author of a number of books on geology, appears to be at the helm. Well worth a viewing if you missed the television programme.
Meanwhile, at www.livescience.com/44381-filter-feeding-cambrian-creature-unearthed.html ?cmpid=55803 … we have a story about a giant filter feeding creature of the Cambrian seas, unearthed in Greenland (in shale like deposits which team with primeval organisms). In the Cambrian the Arctic was a tropical ocean south of the equator (we are told) and Jakob Vinther, of Bristol University, led the research. These creatures were remarkable as the feeding appendages have delicate bristles that resemble the baleen found in the mouths of filter feeding whales in modern oceans. The story is at Nature (march 26th, 2014).