The strange wonders of Burgess shale, the largest fossil wilderness in the world "yeah! Fossil! We are really here! " Alison Daley, a graduate student at Uppsala University in Sweden, lamented. She took a bite of Oreo cookies and fanned her face nervously.
Burgess shale is a sacred place for paleontologists. Charles Doolittle Walcott, the fourth secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, discovered this rich fossil layer a century ago, that is, in the summer of 1909, and named it after the nearby Burgess Mountain. At the end of his first season here, Walcott wrote to a colleague that he "found something very interesting" and talked about keeping a low profile. Burgess fossils only tell the story of the evolution of the CAMBRIAN Big Bang. The relatively simple creatures at that time quickly diversified and became the animal species living today. The well-preserved Burgess specimen (probably buried by underwater debris flow) contains the remains of mollusks, which is rare in the fossil record. These animals lived on the seabed 505 million years ago, near the end of CAMBRIAN. Caron said:
"Most of the doors we know today can already be seen in Cambrian and Burgess shale." But these fossils still look strange. "Of course, they showed evidence of evolution," Karen said. "The animals you saw there are different from what we see today.
After climbing the mountain, the film crew began to explore the most famous Burgess shale site. A rock the size of a tennis court is now called Walcott Quarry, where Walcott first discovered fossils. During nine wild seasons, he collected 65,000 specimens. Since then, this site has been discovered by countless expeditions. Finding any interesting fossils will test his patience and enthusiasm. Even so, the research team is scattered on the scorching hills, digging out the blue-gray shale piece by piece, and checking whether there are creeping or blurred shadows on both sides. Jason Lockton, a graduate student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said that because it is easier to see fossils when rocks are wet, researchers occasionally lick the slate.
"It's like playing a slot machine." Pull, pull, pull, pull. You will eventually get one. Maybe the person next to you will win. Then you have to move on.
Walcott identified his specimens as extinct or modern groups, such as arthropods (shrimp, crab, insects, etc. ) or annelids (arthropods). From 65438 to 0989, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould popularized Burgess's "weird wonders" in his best-selling book Wonderful Life. But he thinks that Walcott mistakenly classified these fossils into the existing taxa. He believes that this strange "problem creature" fossil has long failed to pass scientific appraisal. For example, hallucination, an inch-long creature with two rows of thorns on its back, should have its own taxonomic classification.
Recently, paleontologists began to re-study these classifications, mainly because Burgess fossils were found in Australia, China, Greenland, Russian, Spanish and the United States. With more specimens, scientists can better see the similarities between animals, so they are shifting their attention from uniqueness to similarity.
After a week of weight loss at Walcott Quarry, Caron and his tired and sore team are ready to try a new place. Optimistic Caron said, "I look forward to seeing many new fossils in unexpected places." One hundred years later, there are still many problems and discoveries to be discovered! "
Caron boarded the helicopter, scouted the nearby peaks and looked for new locations in the future. Robert Gaines, a geologist at Pomona College, joined him. He studied shale millimetre by millimetre to determine whether different strata represent thousands of years of sediment accumulation or a few minutes of storm flow deposition. Karen said, "We rely on Bob to read The Book of Rocks. Gaines saw many promising places from the helicopter. " Scientifically speaking, I was awakened. He wants to get down on the ground and take out the tape measure.
The helicopter landed near Stanley Glacier. Karen and Gaines joined another team. They are already looking for fossils. It didn't take long to get my salary dirty. On the first afternoon, Loston discovered the fossil of a species called reptile (until it can be studied, identified and named correctly). Karen shouted, "Champagne!" Caron explained that specimens of this tentacle and three other benthic organisms were also collected.
"Reptiles are a new species, but there is another important reason." This helps to understand the genealogy of two animals, one is starfish and echinoderms, and the other is plankton and semi-echinoderms. This reptile may be a common ancestor, and it is possible to combine the two animals we know today.
Stanley glacial valley, shaped like an amphitheater, turned out to be the scene of a paleontological beauty contest. With the melting of glaciers, in the past thousands of years, it has exposed new outcrops, and loose rocks stretch for a mile and a half. "It's incredible to find so many animals here that they were never touched hundreds of millions of years ago," Caron said. Over the next two weeks, he and his staff occasionally used diamond saws to collect hundreds of specimens, including what they thought were four new species. "One of them is arthropod, where a large number of appendages were found, and many sailors found crustaceans there, so it became a mascot called" Stan animal. " Terrible animals, "Caron said of a specimen with pointed legs and rows of teeth. You don't want to put it in your sleeping bag at night.
After the wild season, Caron returned to the Royal Museum of Ontario, where he changed his shabby and dirty hiking duvet into laboratory white. In collection room, he leafed through a notebook, trying to find jars and crates littered with stones under his feet. "This is a treasure chest waiting to be opened," he said happily.
Siobhan Roberts lives in Toronto. She is the author of The King of Infinite Space. The new Burgess shale deposit in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America (Kalong of Stanley Glacier Site) is showing scientists the evolution model. A century ago, a rich fossil bank called Burgess shale was first discovered. (Siban Roberts