|
Burgess Shale
INTRO:
Home to a tremendously old and yet well preserved collection of fossils, Burgess Shale is located in Yoho National Park in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. In fact, the over half-a-billion years old fossils found there give probably the best glimpse we have at very early, rapidly evolving animal life. In 1981, the UN designated the Burgess Shale a world heritage site.
FOSSILS:
Coming from the Middle Cambrian age when life was lived exclusively in the oceans, the findings at the Burgess Shale are better known in scientific circles than in the popular imagination. Part of the academic attraction to the site is the evidence of soft-bodied animals that were fossilized after dying quickly in an underwater mudslide. That has left spectacular detail in the record caused by all manner of arthropods, sponges, worms, trilobites and even very early human precursors, the first chordates. In fact, the extraordinarily diverse collection of fossils at Burgess Shale include the relatives of virtually all known living animals, not to mention many bizarre organisms that we have trouble explaining to this day
ACTIVITIES:
You are not allowed to collect fossils from either of the two working quarries at Burgess Shale - the lower Walcott Quarry and the upper Raymond Quarry - or anywhere in Yoho National Park for that matter. You also must be accompanied on your hikes by a TYBSF licensed guide, who will undoubtedly be able to further your education along the way. The Yoho Park is certainly worth investigating as well, and the hike to the Burgess Shale starts at the lovely Takakkaw Falls.
LODGING AND RESTAURANTS:
The small village of Field at the base of Mount Stephen is the place to stay if visiting the Burgess Shale, and there are a few options for the traveler there. The Wildflower Guesthouse on Kicking Horse Ave and the Old Church Inn are good places to rest, and the Yoho Brothers Trading Post can certainly feed you well before or after your climbs.
PLAN YOUR VISIT:
All-day hikes to the Burgess Shale (Walcott Quarry) leave from Field at 8am Friday through Monday. They cost approximately $70 for adults and $25 for children - though the little ones could have trouble with the 12 mile roundtrip distance and the overall climb of 2500 feet.
WHEN TO VISIT:
The tours take place from July 1 to September 15, so your available window is narrow anyway, but even then still there can be snow on the trails at the beginning of the season.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Why is the Burgess Shale important? Burgess Shale is the key roadmap of what human beings understand about the Cambrian Period, which happens to be especially significant because it marked life's maturity to more complex animal life forms.
What is the Hallucigenia? Fossils of many types of animal can be found at Burgess Shale, some of which have not made the transition to the modern world. One particularly odd one is the tiny Hallucigenia sparsa, which has been reclassified as more has been discovered about it. The possibly headless creature seems to have walked on a bilateral row of long tentacles, while spines stuck out protectively from its back. However, it is representative of the challenge of some of the findings at the Burgess Shale that the Hallucigenia could in fact be a broken appendage from a larger animal.
Who found the Burgess Shale? Charles Walcott of the Smithsonian Institute, the leading expert on Cambrian-age fossils at that time, first visited the site in 1908 and kept working there until 1917. He sent 65,000 specimens back to Washington DC, though it wasn't until over 40 years later that reclassification and investigation brought acclaim for the region. Stephen J. Gould's best-selling 1989 book, Wonderful Life was about the fossils found at Burgess Shale.
Where can I get more information and facts about the Burgess Shale? The Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation can help with education, hikes, etc. (http://www.burgess-shale.bc.ca/).
|
|
|
