beach and of the bottom of the shallow sea. Even today the most important 

 areas of research are the shallow waters with low tide and high tide, with limey, 

 clayey, sandy, and organic sedimentation, and with a rich benthos. The Con- 

 ference at Sapelo Island is at a suitable place for studying the formation of the 

 flat submarine and intertidal deposits as well as the formation of the salt marsh 

 of the recent geological past. 



In Germany work began on the convenient tidal flats of the North Sea. Here 

 we have the opportunity of studying the laws of sedimentation with our own eyes, 

 without using tools. These studies have now grown beyond the areas of tidal 

 flats and advanced with new methods to the deeper and always flooded areas of 

 the sea bottom. The change of the field of work became necessary because the 

 tidal flats are geologically special cases and many a formation observed there 

 must not be generalized. Every single observation is necessary and every 

 analysis is an important part of the whole. But we must not stop with merely 

 collecting details. After the collecting follows the putting in order, and, in 

 its way, the intellectual penetration of the whole phenomenon is growing. 



In submarine geological research there are preformed arrangements and 

 systems. In submarine paleontological research there are no such systems. 

 This is so because actuopaleontology stands at the limit between biological and 

 geological research. It draws from both areas, but it is nevertheless a whole. 

 Here is an attempt at a system of actuopaleontological phenomena which we 

 have been building in Germany in recent years. 



We distinguish four areas of submarine actuopaleontology: 



1. The death of animals, their decay and sedimentation, 



2. The behavior of life, formed as tracks and trails in the sediment. 



3. Animals and communities of animals such as fossils of a facies. 



4. Functional morphology of the animal's body. 



1. The death of animals, their decay and sedimentation. 



With death a body is usually embeded, but not immediately or completely. 

 It is mechanically broken up and chemically removed. It is necessary to under- 

 stand the stages of destruction. All our knowledge of the forms of fossil ani- 

 mals is based on the interpretation of such bodies embedded "at the light time". 

 The sooner a body is embedded, the more readable is the document of organic 

 life in the rocks, but the later it is, the smaller is the prospect of reconstruct- 

 ing the whole from the fragments. 



We find a series of questions: 



What can we know about the remains of the organic substance ? 



Is the body destroyed purely chemically or by bacteria? 



How is a dry mummification accomplished and where ? Is the destruction 

 a total putrefaction with water and oxygen? What are the conditions of 



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