The Burgess Shale, Weird and Wonderful Fossils

Anomalocaris canadensis mouthpiece (Burgess Shale Formation, Middle Cambrian; Walcott Quarry, above Field, British Columbia, Canada) Anomalocaris canadensis Whiteaves, 1892 mouthpiece (~5.25 x ~4.25 cm), preserved as a carbonized film in slightly metamorphosed shale from the Middle Cambrian-aged Burgess Shale of southwestern Canada (YPM 5825, Yale University’s Peabody Museum, New Haven, Connecticut, USA). This fossil was formerly identified as “Peytoia nathorsti”, a fossil jellyfish (Animalia, Cnidaria, Scyphaozoa https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/

Located in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada, the Burgess Shale contains fossils from the Cambrian explosion, when dramatic diversification (evolution) of animals occurred.

The fossils here are from the Cambrian period of Earth's history, which began over 540 million years ago and lasted more than 55 million years.

More than half a billion years old, these fossils are incredibly diverse and well-preserved, providing a glimpse into the Earth's early life forms.

The fossils were preserved after, animals that lived on a muddy sea floor,  were sent into deeper, oxygen-poor water by submarine landslides. Those with hard shells were preserved, but so too were soft-bodied forms.

About a dozen of the phyla that still exist today can be found in the fossil collection. But, the shale also preserves sea-dwelling invertebrates unlike anything alive today.

Stanleycaris hirpex, a 20-centimetre-long distant relative of today's arthropods, had two protruding eyes on the side of its head and a larger eye in the centre.

The Anomalocaris (“abnormal shrimp”) that grew up to six feet long, is the largest animal among the Burgess Shale fossils. It propelled itself through the water by undulating the flexible flaps on the sides of its body.

 Anomalocaris canadensis grasping claw (Burgess Shale Formation, Middle Cambrian; Walcott Quarry, above Field, British Columbia, Canada) James St. John

The extinct Pikaia gracilens, a flat eel-like creature, was just 5cm long, and the earliest chordate,[15] or the oldest ancestor of humans.[16][17]

The Pikaia fossil from the Royal Ontario Museum's collection.

Animals similar to those found in the Burgess Shale, have been found in about 30 sites from North America and Greenland, to China and Australia.

Ogygopsis klotzi fossil trilobite tail (Burgess Shale Formation, Middle Cambrian; Mt. Stephen, British Columbia, southwestern Canada) https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/

Diorama of the Burgess Shale Biota (Middle Cambrian) - anomalocaridid, sponges 1 https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/