Download or read book Fossils of the Burgess Shale written by Simon Conway Morris and published by Natural Resources Canada. This book was released on 1985 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication, designed for the public, describes the discovery of the Burgess shale, recent work on its formation, and the flora and fauna found in it. The major animal groups are described and illustrated. The scientific significance of the shale is explained.

Download or read book FOSSILS OF BURGESS SHALE PB written by BRIGGS D and published by Smithsonian. This book was released on 1995-06-17 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its discovery in 1909 by Charles Doolittle Walcott, then Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rocky Mountains has fascinated both scientists and the public with its plethora of weird wonders - life forms of the past so unfamiliar they cannot easily be assigned to known taxonomic groups. This century's most significant invertebrate fossil discovery, the Burgess Shale provides an unprecedented window into the explosive evolution during the Cambrian period that began about 540 million years ago, one of the most enigmatic episodes in the history of life. This book provides the first comprehensive set of illustrations of the extraordinary life forms revealed in the Burgess Shale. In addition to the more common fossilized hard skeletons, the Burgess Shale preserved the soft parts of these organisms, which provide a key to understanding the early evolution of the major groups of animals that inhabit the earth today. The Fossils of the Burgess Shale shows much remarkable detail - including digestive tracts and other internal organs - of creatures preserved in particles of mud fine enough to penetrate every crack and unevenness. The book begins with the history of exploration and research in the Burgess Shale, the geologic setting and preservation of the fossils, and a discussion of the Cambrian radiation, the period when almost all the major phyla of animals evolved. These introductory chapters are followed by 199 high-quality photographs and line drawings with detailed species accounts that describe important features of each specimen, as well as the ecology and taxonomy of each group. A complete list of all currently accepted species described from the Burgess Shale and a comprehensive bibliography follow the illustrations. The Fossil of the Burgess Shale is a compendium of fascinating Cambrian treasures that offer a rare glimpse into the nature of early life on our planet. They have figured prominently in recent evolutionary debates. The National Museum of Natural History, which houses more than 65,000 fossils collected by Walcott from the Burgess Shale, will open a new exhibition of the specimens in 1995.

Download or read book Fossils of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale British Columbia written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Burgess Shale written by Harry Blackmore Whittington and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Wonderful Life The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History written by Stephen Jay Gould and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1990-09-17 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[An] extraordinary book. . . . Mr. Gould is an exceptional combination of scientist and science writer. . . . He is thus exceptionally well placed to tell these stories, and he tells them with fervor and intelligence."—James Gleick, New York Times Book Review High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It hold the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived—a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.

Download or read book Sponges of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale and Stephen Formations British Columbia written by J. Keith Rigby and published by ROM. This book was released on 2004 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Geoscience Guide to the Burgess Shale written by Murray Coppold and published by Field, B.C. : Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation. This book was released on 2006 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Life in Stone written by Rolf Ludvigsen and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life in Stone is the first book to focus on British Columbia's fossils. Each of its chapters is written by a specialist for a general audience, and each is devoted to a separate fossil group that is particularly well represented in the province. Richly illustrated with photographs and drawings, Life in Stone will provide fascinating reading for anyone interested in learning more about the animals and plants that inhabited British Columbia during prehistoric times.

Download or read book The Crucible of Creation written by Simon Conway Morris and published by Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paleontologist Simon Conway Morris provides a guided tour of the world's richest treasure trove of fossils--a fantastically rich deposit of bizarre and bewildering Cambrain fossils, located in Western Canada. 4 plates. 90 linecuts.

Download or read book Cambrian Geology and Paleontology written by Charles Doolittle Walcott and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sedimentology and Palynology of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale written by Kevin E. Gostlin and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analysis of the sedimentology of the Burgess Shale's Greater Phyllopod bed (GPB) as well as palynology of the Burgess Shale and bounding Formations has shed more light on our breadth of understanding of depositional and ecological setting. High resolution sedimentologic analysis of the GPB was conducted in order to compare the competing depositional models as well as consideration that the biota preserved at the GPB is in situ. The paucity of trace fossils remains the most substantial fact suggesting that the majority of GPB biota is allochthonous. There are, however, some species that appear to be in situ. Sediment patterns such as massive beds with high clay content are inconsistent with deposition via turbidity currents, and fluidized mud-flows respectively. The clinoform geometry of the basin is most consistent with transport of sediment off the escarpment perpendicular to the strike of the platform edge. Storm generated backcurrents likely transported the mud and majority of fossils from their original habitat the platform high above the GPB. Palynologic analysis by delicate acid-maceration also permitted the isolation of organic carbon cuticle, and abundant acritarchs directly from the arthropod Marrella splendens. The acritarchs are found in higher concentrations in association with the Marrella than in the matrix immediately surrounding the organism. It is concluded that Marrella was a filter-feeder composing a critical trophic link in this Middle Cambrian ecosystem. The presence of delicate organic carbon structures highlights the fact that organic carbon preservation contributed to the extraordinary preservation of the fossils of the Burgess Shale. Palynologic analysis of a few of the bounding formations in the vicinity of the Burgess Shale fossil beds as well as detailed examination of the GPB has revealed one new genus, Asperitas, and several new species of acritarchs including, Acrum incompostum, A. minutum, Asperitas anaideia, A. burgessensis, Dictyotidium acanthodes, D. cerionites, Dictyotidium? fraudulentum, D. microreticulatum, D. monogranulum, Micrhystridium cylindrum, Trachysphaeridium bicircummunum and T. reticulatum.

Download or read book Revisiting the Cambrian Burgess Shale Palaeocommunity in Light of New Field Discoveries from Marble Canyon Kootenay National Park British Columbia written by Karma Nanglu and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 508-million-year-old Burgess Shale (British Columbia) is among the most important fossil localities in the world as it provides a direct window into the Cambrian Explosion, the phenomenon whereby most metazoan groups appeared rapidly in the fossil record for the first time. For over 100 years, Burgess Shale fossils have provided unique insights into the early evolutionary history of animal life, but a holistic description of the community ecology of the Burgess Shale has remained elusive. This dissertation aims to reinvestigate the Burgess Shale paleocommunity in light of the recently discovered Marble Canyon fossil site in Kootenay National Park, integrating this new dataset with those from the type areas in Yoho National Park, 40km to the northwest (Walcott Quarry, Raymond Quarry, and Tulip Beds). The first three chapters of this dissertation focus on the organismal level. An experimental decay study (Chapter 1) provides a framework for the interpretation of taphonomic bias in community reconstructions. The redescription of three enigmatic Cambrian taxa (Chapters 2 and 3) provide novel phylogenetic and ecological information for understanding the patterns of diversity and niche structure at Marble Canyon. The community analysis (Chapter 4) represents the largest quantitative study of the Burgess Shale to date. Patterns of faunal stasis between most adjacent bedding assemblages followed by periodic variations in abundance and species identity are found at both Marble Canyon and Walcott Quarry, the two best-studied sites with the finest level of stratigraphic/temporal data. Across the entire Burgess Shale paleocommunity, major shifts in representative taxonomic groups and ecological modes occur between major localities. The results of this work suggest that the Burgess Shale as a paleocommunity was highly heterogeneous in both its taxonomic and ecological composition. Shifting abiotic and environmental variables are determined to be more significant in the long-term structuring of Burgess Shale communities than species interactions such as predation, which was previously considered paramount.

Download or read book Cambrian Ocean World written by John Foster and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2014-06-06 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume, aimed at the general reader, presents life and times of the amazing animals that inhabited Earth more than 500 million years ago. The Cambrian Period was a critical time in Earth's history. During this immense span of time nearly every modern group of animals appeared. Although life had been around for more than 2 million millennia, Cambrian rocks preserve the record of the first appearance of complex animals with eyes, protective skeletons, antennae, and complex ecologies. Grazing, predation, and multi-tiered ecosystems with animals living in, on, or above the sea floor became common. The cascade of interaction led to an ever-increasing diversification of animal body types. By the end of the period, the ancestors of sponges, corals, jellyfish, worms, mollusks, brachiopods, arthropods, echinoderms, and vertebrates were all in place. The evidence of this Cambrian "explosion" is preserved in rocks all over the world, including North America, where the seemingly strange animals of the period are preserved in exquisite detail in deposits such as the Burgess Shale in British Columbia. Cambrian Ocean World tells the story of what is, for us, the most important period in our planet's long history.

Download or read book Arthropod Relationships written by Richard A. Fortey and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The arthropods contain more species than any other animal group, but the evolutionary pathways which led to their current diversity are still an issue of controversy. Arthropod Relationships provides an overview of our current understanding, responding to the new data arising from sequencing DNA, the discovery of new Cambrian fossils as direct evidence of early arthropod history, and developmental genetics. These new areas of research have stimulated a reconsideration of classical morphology and embryology. Arthropod Relationships is the first synthesis of the current debate to emerge: not since the volume edited by Gupta was published in 1979 has the arthropod phylogeny debate been, considered in this depth and breadth. Leaders in the various branches of arthropod biology have contributed to this volume. Chapters focus progressively from the general issues to the specific problems involving particular groups, and thence to a consideration of embryology and genetics. This wide range of disciplines is drawn on to approach an understanding of arthropod relationships, and to provide the most timely account of arthropod phylogeny. This book should be read by evolutionary biologists, palaeontologists, developmental geneticists and invertebrate zoologists. It will have a special interest for post-graduate students working in these fields.

Download or read book Atlas of the Burgess Shale written by Simon Conway Morris and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event written by Barry D. Webby and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004-04-14 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two of the greatest evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth occurred during Early Paleozoic time. The first was the Cambrian explosion of skeletonized marine animals about 540 million years ago. The second was the "Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event," which is the focus of this book. During the 46-million-year Ordovician Period (489–443 m.y.), a bewildering array of adaptive radiations of "Paleozoic- and Modern-type" biotas appeared in marine habitats, the first animals (arthropods) walked on land, and the first non-vascular bryophyte-like plants (based on their cryptospore record) colonized terrestrial areas with damp environments. This book represents a compilation by a large team of Ordovician specialists from around the world, who have enthusiastically cooperated to produce this first globally orientated, internationally sponsored IGCP (International Geological Correlation Program) project on Ordovician biotas. The major part is an assembly of genus- and species-level diversity data for the many Ordovician fossil groups. The book also presents an evaluation of how each group diversified through Ordovician time, with assessments of patterns of change and rates of origination and extinction. As such, it will become the standard work and data source for biotic studies on the Ordovician Period.

Download or read book International Conference on the Cambrian Explosion written by Paul A. Johnston and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: