Darwin's Dilemma and the Burgess Shale

This lab was one of the rare occasions when we were able to stay on campus. We watched a film called Darwin's Dilemma and learned about the Burgess Shale.

The film is a documentary dealing with the sudden appearance of many new species of animals during the Cambrian Explosion around 530 million years ago. The film discusses how this seemingly sudden arrival of many phyla is the biggest challenge to Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Darwin himself recognized this, and discussed the problem in The Origin of Species. 

One of the most important sites for researching the Cambrian Explosion is the Burgess Shale. The Burgess Shale is located in British Columbia and is one of the greatest fossil fields that we have. It dates back to the mid-Cambrian period, and it is so unique because it contains soft parts of fossils. It was discovered by Charles Walcott in 1909. By the time he died, Walcott had collected over 65,000 specimens from the shale. Later research would show that the species found there were far more unusual than even Walcott had suspected.

Some of the species found in the Burgess Shale include Marrella, Anomalocaris, Halwaxiida, Opabina, and Odontogriphus.