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BURGESS SHALE

BURGESS SHALE. Kelly Lekan November 19, 2007 GEO 401. British Columbia, Canada Yoho National Park. LOCATION. Cambrian period ~505 million years ago Once located on the Western edge of Laurentia Was near the equator

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BURGESS SHALE

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  1. BURGESS SHALE Kelly Lekan November 19, 2007 GEO 401

  2. British Columbia, Canada Yoho National Park LOCATION

  3. Cambrian period ~505 million years ago Once located on the Western edge of Laurentia Was near the equator Environment was a warm, shallow marine environment where light could easily penetrate the area. GEOLOGY

  4. GEOLOGY • Found within the Stephen Formation • Located between Mount Wapta and Mount Field. • Two major quarries • Walcott quarry (Named for founder of the Burgess Shale Charles P. Walcott) • Contains the Phyllopod Bed • Most famous fossil collecting site • Raymond quarry

  5. WALCOTT QUARRY

  6. Deposited in a deep-water basin adjacent to an algae reef Turbidity flows and mudslides transported and buried the organisms Anoxic environment Rapid burial Killed instantly Not in life position PRESERVATION

  7. PALEONTOLOGY • The best record we have of Cambrian animals • Most diverse and well-preserved fossil localities • Soft body preservation

  8. PALEONTOLOGY • 60,000 unique fossils have been collected • 140 species • 119 genera • ‘Weird wonders’

  9. PALEONTOLOGY • Dominated by arthropods • Sponges, worm-like phyla, brachiopods, echinoderms, chordates, and mollusks • 13 different genera of trilobites • Diversity of life • Benthic (lived in the substrates in the bottom of the ocean) • Active and passive suspension feeders, deposit feeders, scavengers, active predators • Free swimmers and bottom dwellers • Bottom dwellers moved by either burrowing or crawling • Microfossils • Bacteria, protists, cyanobacteria, and dinoflagellates • Macroscopic algae

  10. PALEONTOLOGY • Well preserved exoskeletons, limbs, and infillings of the gut • Soft tissue and muscles • Phyllopod Bed • Dark Stains • Radioactive carbon

  11. EVOLUTION • Best record of Cambrian animals • Cambrian explosion • 545-525 million years ago • Appearance of many new organisms • Soft bodied organisms • ‘Taphonomic Window’ • “Historical snapshot in the diversity of ancient life”

  12. SIGNIFICANCE • Best record of Cambrian animals • Best record of soft body preservation • Evidence of Cambrian explosion • Evolution from pre-Cambrian life forms • Diversity of life • Modes of life/adaptation • Body plans

  13. REFERENCES AND IMAGES • HPVM: Hooper Virtual Paleontological Museum. Burgess Shale: Hidden Treasure in the Canadian Rockies. http://park.org/Canada/Museum/burgessshale/tablen.html • MacRae, Andrew. Burgess Shale Fossils. http://www.geo.ucalgary.ca/~macrae/Burgess_Shale/ • Rivera, Alexei A. Fossil Lagerstatten: Burgess Shale. Department of Earth Sciences. University of Bristol. http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/palaeofiles/lagerstatten/Burgess/biota.html. • Smithsonian: National Museum of Natural History. The Burgess Shale: Strange Creatures – A Burgess Shale Fossil Sampler. http://paleobiology.si.edu/burgess/index.html • Trilobites. Trilobites of the Burgess Shale, Canada. http://www.trilobites.info/Burgess.htm • UCMP Berkeley. Localities of the Cambrian: The Burgess Shale. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/cambrian/burgess.html.

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