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The Burgess Shale Introduction Virtual Sea Odyssey Fossil Gallery Science Origin of Animals and the Cambrian Explosion The Tree of Life The Microbial World Enigmatic Ediacarans The Cambrian Explosion The Burgess Shale Overview The Locality Today Geological Background The Fossils Fieldwork and Collections Planning and Expedition Fieldwork Labwork and Collections History Historical Context Context Importance of the Canadian Pacific Railroad The Role of the Geological Survey of Canada A Late Decision and the First Fossil Discoveries A Burgeoning Tourism Industry The Burgess Shale Protected by Parks Canada Timeline Mary Vaux Field Photography Settling Camp Women’s Attire While Riding a Horse Nutrition Swiss Guides The Call of the Mountains The Mighty Glaciers The Intriguing Fossils Yoho Glacier Letter to Charles Walcott Discoveries Resources Readings and Research Updates Books Field Guidebooks Research Publications Research Updates Museum Displays, Websites, Documentaries Museum Displays Burgess Shale Webpages Other Webpages of Interest For Educators Visit Book A Guided Hike Photo Gallery Testimonials Other Fossil Experiences Free Park Programs Explore From Home Willner Madge Gallery: Dawn of Life About Site Protection Parks Canada’s Role Menu Introduction Virtual Sea Odyssey Fossil Gallery Science Origin of Animals and the Cambrian Explosion The Tree of Life The Microbial World Enigmatic Ediacarans The Cambrian Explosion The Burgess Shale Overview The Locality Today Geological Background The Fossils Fieldwork and Collections Planning and Expedition Fieldwork Labwork and Collections History Historical Context Context Importance of the Canadian Pacific Railroad The Role of the Geological Survey of Canada A Late Decision and the First Fossil Discoveries A Burgeoning Tourism Industry The Burgess Shale Protected by Parks Canada Timeline Mary Vaux Field Photography Settling Camp Women’s Attire While Riding a Horse Nutrition Swiss Guides The Call of the Mountains The Mighty Glaciers The Intriguing Fossils Yoho Glacier Letter to Charles Walcott Discoveries Resources Readings and Research Updates Books Field Guidebooks Research Publications Research Updates Museum Displays, Websites, Documentaries Museum Displays Burgess Shale Webpages Other Webpages of Interest For Educators Visit Book A Guided Hike Photo Gallery Testimonials Other Fossil Experiences Free Park Programs Explore From Home Willner Madge Gallery: Dawn of Life About Site Protection Parks Canada’s Role English Français English Français Search ... Results See all results Discover the Burgess Shale in Yoho National Park, which preserves one of the world’s first complex marine ecosystems and is part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. Virtual Sea Odyssey Observe the creatures who lived in the Burgess Shale community from a virtual submarine”. Virtual Sea Odyssey Fossil Gallery Tour the fossil gallery with spectacular images and reconstructions of specimens. Fossil Gallery Science Uncover the science of the Burgess Shale in an evolutionary and geological context. Science History Learn about the discovery of the first fossils and various field expeditions. History Parks Canada Visit fossil sites and enjoy other experiences with Parks Canada, at the Royal Ontario Museum, or at home. Visit Credits Copyrights Sitemap Feedback Credits Copyrights Sitemap Feedback © Royal Ontario Museum 2024. All Rights Reserved. Gould Slideshow In 1990, noted palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould spoke at the Royal Ontario Museum about the fossils of the Burgess Shale. While many of Gould’s interpretations have been challenged, his talk provides a snapshot of how the organisms were viewed then. (6:20) So this is Marrella . I should say that arthropods are classified primarily by numbers of segments and patterns in their various body parts. DESCRIPTION: Photograph of Marrella And here’s Marrella , it’s an arthropod that doesn’t fit into any group. It has these two sets of spines… there it is. It doesn’t have any allegiance. DESCRIPTION: Drawing of Marrella So Whittington was puzzled when he first published on Marrella in 1971 but he went on and the next creature he studied was Yohoia . DESCRIPTION: Photograph of Yohoia Looked like a shrimp, had been called one by Walcott, and again, as Whittington studied it with care, it just didn’t fit into any modern group. It looks like a shrimp superficially, but when you start counting the segments you don’t have anything like the crustacean body plan. DESCRIPTION: Drawing of Yohoia For instance, up in the head you have this unique set of frontal appendages which have no homologue anywhere else in the arthropods. Whittington ended up calling them simply the great appendages” because he didn’t know what to do with them. DESCRIPTION: Photograph of Odaraia This is Odaraia , a creature that swims on its back and has a tail fluke that looks more like a whale than an arthropod, but again, not allied to anything. DESCRIPTION: Drawing of Odaraia Looked vaguely like a swimming crustacean, but isn’t when you look at the segments and their patterns of the tail. DESCRIPTION: Photograph of Sidneyia This is Sidneyia , which was described by Walcott as a chelicerate, that is a member of the horseshoe crab, eventually the spider-scorpion group. And in some superficial sense that’s what it looks like. But in detail it isn’t. DESCRIPTION: Drawing of Sidneyia All chelicerates have six pairs of appendages on their head. Sidneyia has one pair. It’s not like anything… just these antennae… it’s not like anything else… it is just is what it is. DESCRIPTION: Photograph of Habelia This is Habelia , an odd creature… DESCRIPTION: Drawing of Habelia … with tubercules all over its body. DESCRIPTION: Photograph of Leanchoilia This is Leanchoilia , my personal favourite for elegance, but not among the survivors. DESCRIPTION: Drawing of Leanchoilia Again, these odd great appendages, as Whittington calls them, with their whiplash endings. DESCRIPTION: Photograph of Aysheaia This is Aysheaia . DESCRIPTION: Drawing of Aysheaia Now, this creature is probably an onychophore, that is it is a member of a modern group symbolized by the genus with the wonderful name Peripatus , which is a not very well known group, but it’s thought to be possibly intermediary between annelids and arthropods and may be the ancestor of the insect group. So here we may have a creature that is truly related to one of the surviving groups of arthropods. DESCRIPTION: Desmond Collins, former ROM Curator, holding fossil And here is a form that Des Collins found and initially gave a field name, following paleontological tradition… DESCRIPTION: Photograph of Sanctacaris … he called it Santa Claws”. And eventually named it Sanctacaris , which means much the same thing. Now again, does it look any different than the ones I just showed you? DESCRIPTION: Drawing of Sanctacaris Would you have picked out this creature for success? Could you have predicted that this, by virtue of superiority would go on? Yet it looks as though Sanctacaris really is a chelicerate. There are six pairs of appendages in the right place on the head so this animal may be at least a cousin to one of the successful lineages. Again, would you have known? Could anyone have known? DESCRIPTION: Photograph of Opabinia This is Opabinia . Opabinia , I think, should stand as one of the great moments in the history of human knowledge. DESCRIPTION: Drawing of Opabinia Because Opabinia , which was described as an arthropod, a shrimp-like creature, by Walcott, who shoehorned it into modern groups as he always did. Opabinia was the first creature re-studied by Whittington that broke the conceptual dam, so to speak, and gave insights into this new world. DESCRIPTION: Technical drawing of Opabinia Because Whittington began his studies in the early 1970s on Opabinia thinking it would be an arthropod. He realizes, as Walcott did not, that there was some three-dimensionality in these...