Burgess Shale

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Burgess Shale A Middle Cambrian (540 Ma ago) rock horizon in British Columbia, Canada, that has yielded many exceptionally well-preserved fossils of metazoans, the remains of which were deposited in deep water or near a submarine fan. First discovered in 1909 by C. D. Walcott, the fossil fauna has been described many times. The fossils reveal a high level of endemism, with many taxa that subsequently became extinct. The discovery of other well-preserved Cambrian faunas in China, Greenland, and Australia has helped with the interpretation of the Burgess fossils.

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