Diorama of the Burgess Shale Biota (Middle Cambrian) - Aysheaia, annelid worms, Olenoides trilobite, Marrella

            The Middle Cambrian-aged Burgess Shale is the most famous fossil deposit on Earth.  It is located near the town of Field in Yoho National Park, southeastern British Columbia, western Canada.  The deposit is famous for its spectacular soft-bodied preservation - the organisms have had their appendages & internal organs preserved.  Many tens of thousands of fossils have been collected from the Burgess Shale Formation over the last century.  Including known, but unnamed species, and excluding known or demonstrable junior synonyms, the Burgess Shale biota totals at least ~280 species.
 
Many claim that Charles Walcott discovered the Burgess Shale Lagerstätte (as soft-bodied fossil deposits are called by paleontologists) in 1909.  However, it was actually discovered in 1886 or 1888 by Richard McConnell, based on anomalocarid appendage material from Mt. Stephen, in the Campsite Cliff Member of the Burgess Shale Formation.  The main collecting localities have been two quarries (Walcott Quarry & Raymond Quarry) on the western side of the ridge connecting Mt. Field and Wapta Mountain a little north-northeast of Field.  Numerous other smaller localities have been identified in the same area & for many, many kilometers to the south.  Collecting at the Burgess Shale was most intense in 1910-1917 (Charles Walcott), 1925-1930 (Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology), 1966-1967 (Geological Survey of Canada), and 1975-2000s (Royal Ontario Museum).

Shown above is a diorama - a model-based reconstruction of the Burgess Shale.  This is a public exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The reddish-brown colored animal at upper right is an Olenoides trilobite.  The small, light-colored arthropods next to it are Marrella.  The elongated creature at lower left is an Aysheaia onychophoran.  The green-and-yellow, elongated animal is an annelid worm.

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Taken on: July 21, 2006

Tags:

trilobite

trilobites

worms

Aysheaia

Burgess

Shale

Middle

Cambrian

fossil

fossils

British

Columbia

Canada

reconstruction

model

models

diorama « less

Sets appears in: • Annelid Worms (fossil & modern) • Dioramas - Reconstructions of Ancient Ecosystems more » • Reconstructions of the Burgess Shale Biota (Middle Cambrian; western Canada) • Cambrian Rocks & Fossils « less

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