Soft-bodied fossils from the roof shales of the Wigan four foot coal seam,Westhoughton, Lancashire, UK

Exceptionally preserved fossils are described from the Westhoughton opencas t coal pit near Wigan, Lancashire, UK (uppermost Westphalian A, Lower Modio laris Chronozone, regularis faunal belt). The fossils occur within sideriti c concretions in a 1.5-metre zone above the Wigan Four Foot coal seam. Arth ropods dominate the fauna and include arachnids, arthropleurids, crustacean s, eurypterids, euthycarcinoids, millipedes and xiphosurans. Vertebrates ar e represented by a single palaeoniscid fish, numerous disarticulated scales and coprolites. Upright Sigillaria trees, massive bedded units and a gener al lack of trace fossils in the roof shales of the Wigan Four Foot coal sea m suggest that deposition of the beds containing these concretions was rela tively rapid. Discovery of similar faunas at the equivalent stratigraphic l evel some distance away point to regional rather than localized controls on exceptional preservation.