Fine Art of Paleontology – Burgess Shale

Fine Art of Paleontology – Burgess Shale
Natures Talk Shows Fine art of Paleontology topic will be about Burgess Shale and the fascinating fossils discovered within. The Burgess Shale was discovered by palaeontologist Charles Walcott on 30 August 1909,towards the end of the season?s fieldwork. He returned in 1910 with his sons, daughter, and wife, establishing a quarry on the flanks of Fossil Ridge. The significance of soft-bodied preservation, and the range of organisms he recognised as new to science, led him to return to the quarry almost every year until 1924. At that point, aged 74, he had amassed over 65,000 specimens. Describing the fossils was a vast task, pursued by Walcott until his death in 1927. Walcott, led by scientific opinion at the time, attempted to categorise all fossils into living taxa, and as a result, the fossils were regarded as little more than curiosities at the time. It was not until 1962 that a first-hand reinvestigation of the fossils was attempted, by Alberto Simonetta. This led scientists to recognise that Walcott had barely scratched the surface of information available in the Burgess Shale, and also made it clear that the organisms did not fit comfortably into modern groups.
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Fine Art of Paleontology – Burgess Shale
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