Paleoenvironmental Patterns of Biogenic Sedimentary Structures

In the mid-twentieth century much of the impetus for paleoecological research was from the need for the fossil record to provide paleoenvironmental information. At that time earth scientists trying to understand the environmental context in which sedimentary rocks were deposited began extensive utilization of fossil components and sedimentary structures to make their interpretations. Towards this end, paleontologists and biologists catalogued the environmental preferences and depth distributions of modern organisms, and these modern distributions have been utilized in paleoenvironmental reconstructions by means of taxonomic uniformitarianism. Physical sedimentary structures have also been studied extensively in modern environments and laboratory simulations so that their occurrence in rocks can provide detailed information on ancient environments.