Downloaded from http://jgs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021 Review focus Journal of the Geological Society Published Online First https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2018-042 The Weeks Formation Konservat-Lagerstätte and the evolutionary transition of Cambrian marine life Rudy Lerosey-Aubril1*, Robert R. Gaines2, Thomas A. Hegna3, Javier Ortega-Hernández4,5, Peter Van Roy6, Carlo Kier7 & Enrico Bonino7 1 Palaeoscience Research Centre, School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia 2 Geology Department, Pomona College, Claremont, CA 91711, USA 3 Department of Geology, Western Illinois University, 113 Tillman Hall, 1 University Circle, Macomb, IL 61455, USA 4 Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK 5 Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA 6 Department of Geology, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281/S8, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium 7 Back to the Past Museum, Carretera Cancún, Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo 77580, Mexico R.L.-A., 0000-0003-2256-1872; R.R.G., 0000-0002-3713-5764; T.A.H., 0000-0001-9067-8787; J.O.-H., 0000-0002- 6801-7373 * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: The Weeks Formation in Utah is the youngest (c. 499 Ma) and least studied Cambrian Lagerstätte of the western USA. It preserves a diverse, exceptionally preserved fauna that inhabited a relatively deep water environment at the offshore margin of a carbonate platform, resembling the setting of the underlying Wheeler and Marjum formations. However, the Weeks fauna differs significantly in composition from the other remarkable biotas of the Cambrian Series 3 of Utah, suggesting a significant Guzhangian faunal restructuring.