Trilobite

was discovered by Charles D. Walcott in 1909. Walcott spent 18 years collecting and classifying the fossils located at this site. The Shale was formed about 530 million years ago, in the Cambrian Period. Most Cambrian rocks contain fossils of trilobite shells, cap-shaped or flattened shells, and brachiopods (Whittington, 1985). When Walcott went looking for North American Cambrian fossils in August of 1909, he ended up in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. He and his wife found a loose block in the

B.ED. SCIENCE WITH SPECIALISATION IN BIOLOGY   Table of Contents The Burgess Shale Fauna 3 Introduction 3 History of Discovery 3 Preservation Bias 4 Major Fossils 4 Concluding remarks: 7 References: 8 The Burgess Shale Fauna Introduction The Burgess Shale Fauna is a fauna that was constructed based on a group of fossils that were initially found, in the Burgess Shale area in the Canadian Rockies (Gould, 1989). They are a very important group of fossils as “modern multicellular

formations due to the fact that they are one of the most preserved including not only the hard parts of an animal such as the tissue, muscles and organs, but also gives evidence that soft bodied creatures lived at the time. Trilobite - Olenoides The scientific name of a Trilobite in

Introduction: “Limulus polyphemus, the horseshoe crab, inhabits shallow-brackish marine environments ranging from the Atlantic Ocean along the North American coastline to the Gulf coasts of the United states and from the East coast of Mexico to the Yucatan Peninsula” (Walls, Elizabeth). There are three other species of the horseshoe crab worldwide: Tachypleus tridentatus, Tachypleus gigas, and Carconoscorpinus rotundicauda that closely resemble Limulus in structure and habits, ranging from the

Cambrian critters has been found in the Wheeler Shale and the Marjum Formation, both of which are exposed in the House Range. * Marble Mountains - In the hottest part of the Mojave Desert of California is the rich Latham Shale where Olenellid trilobites are numerous. * White-Inyo Mountains - You can visit ancient reefs in the mountains of eastern California. Cambrian life Explosion of Invertebrate Life During the Cambrian Period there was an explosion of life

Cambrian: • This period started 540 million years ago and ended 500 million years ago. • There was a very mild climate. The supercontinent Rodinia began to break into smaller parts, or continents. Lots of glaciation occurred so many animal families went extinct. • All phyla develop during this time period. Many marine animals, shell-fish, echinoderms, and some of the earliest fish appear. • Lots of glaciation occurred wiping out many animal families marking the end of the Cambrian period.

During the Paleozoic brachiopods were a highly diverse and abundant phylum, dominating the fauna and subsequently the fossil record for millions of years (Topper). Brachiopods have two valves with bilateral symmetry and are sessile benthic marine organisms that obtain energy through filter feeding by means of a structure called a lophophore. They occupied various marine ecological niches throughout the Paleozoic, with the shell morphology generally indicating the life habit of the organism (I just

area was almost entirely ocean, and most of the world's land was collected into the southern supercontinent Gondwana. Throughout the Ordovician, Gondwana was submerged underwater. This period is best known for its animals, including graptolites, trilobites, brachiopods, and the conodonts. Plants invaded the land during this period. The most recent types of like animal was tetrahedral spores that are similar to land plants have been found, suggesting that plants invaded the land at this time. Later

For a long period, up till now, I loved the early life of earth. Kimberella, Dickinsonia, and, later in time, Hylonomus were some of the creatures I studied. To find out, I went online to look around. The first question I looked at, to me at least, was the diversity of life in the early periods of life, specifically the Ordovician. To find out the answer, we must go back in time, at the beginning of the Ordovician in fact, to find out the answer. I started my research on this topic by surfing the

that trilobites were in abundance and ruled the oceans (Crônier & François, 2014). These trilobites can be small, ridged segmented