Parker Slate

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| name = Parker Slate

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| type = Formation

| age = Cambrian Stage 4

| period = Cambrian Stage 4

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| region = Vermont

| country = United States

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The Parker Slate is a geologic formation in Vermont. It preserves fossils dating back to the Cambrian period. This formation preserves the first known lagerstätte from the Cambrian, 25 years before the Burgess Shale. However, the site was lost from the 1880s (with the few people who found it afterwards never recording soft-bodied fossils) until 2021 when new exceptional material was recovered from this formation. The rarity of fossils seems to be genuine, since the exceptional preservation recorded shows decay was not a large factor.{{cite journal |last1=Pari |first1=Giovanni |last2=Briggs |first2=Derek E.G. |last3=Gaines |first3=Robert R. |title=The Parker Quarry Lagerstätte of Vermont—The first reported Burgess Shale–type fauna rediscovered |journal=Geology |date=1 June 2021 |volume=49 |issue=6 |pages=693–697 |doi=10.1130/G48422.1}} Chordates like Emmonsaspis and hymenocarines like Vermontcaris are preserved, alongside amplectobeluid radiodonts and large quantities of complete trilobites.{{cite journal |last1=Pari |first1=Giovanni |last2=Briggs |first2=Derek E.G. |last3=Gaines |first3=Robert R. |last4=Roach |first4=Brian T. |last5=Webster |first5=Mark |title=Exceptional lower Cambrian fossils from a long‐lost locality in Vermont, USA |journal=Geology Today |date=July 2023 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=152–157 |doi=10.1111/gto.12444}}{{cite journal |last1=Pari |first1=Giovanni |last2=Briggs |first2=Derek E.G. |last3=Gaines |first3=Robert R. |title=The soft-bodied biota of the Cambrian Series 2 Parker Quarry Lagerstätte of northwestern Vermont, USA |journal=Journal of Paleontology |date=July 2022 |volume=96 |issue=4 |pages=770–790 |doi=10.1017/jpa.2021.125|doi-access=free }}