Publications by authors named "Madison Tripp"

The Rhynie Chert (Lower Devonian, Scotland) hosts a remarkably well-preserved early terrestrial ecosystem. Organisms including plants, fungi, arthropods, and bacteria were rapidly silicified due to inundation by silica-rich hot spring fluids. Exceptional molecular preservation has been noted by many authors, including some of the oldest evidence of lignin in the fossil record.

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Fossilised true ferns (Pecopteris sp.) preserved in siderite concretions from the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte (Illinois) presented a unique opportunity to characterise the organic signatures of these late Carboniferous plants. Localised analyses of true fern fossils showed several highly abundant phytohopanoids and fernane/arborane derived aromatic products, which were present only negligibly within their siderite matrix, as well as from other types of fossilised plants.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study focuses on how well-preserved organic matter (OM) found in mineral concretions—like carbonate, phosphate, and iron minerals—can reveal crucial information about ancient environments, fossil preservation, and evolutionary processes on Earth.
  • - It reviews various types of concretions, their formation mechanisms (especially the role of microbes), and the methodologies used for analyzing the organic and inorganic materials contained within them.
  • - The paper highlights past research, challenges in the field, and the potential of geobiological archives to offer new insights into Earth's history, urging for better interdisciplinary communication and understanding.
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The reconstruction of ancient trophic networks is pivotal to our understanding of ecosystem function and change through time. However, inferring dietary relationships in enigmatic ecosystems dominated by organisms without modern analogues, such as the Carboniferous Mazon Creek fauna, has previously been considered challenging: preserved coprolites often do not retain sufficient morphology to identify the dietary composition. Here, we analysed = 3 Mazon Creek coprolites in concretions for dietary signals in preserved biomarkers, stable carbon isotope data, and macromolecular composition.

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