What kind of organisms are in the Burgess Shale?

What kind of organisms are in the Burgess Shale?

This was an explosion of life. Within ten million years, a very short period geologically, a host of hard-body and soft-body animals appeared in the fossil record. Trilobites, molluscs, chordates, cnidarians, brachiopods and many more phyla all appeared abruptly.

What is the most abundant animal phylum in the Burgess Shale?

Arthropods are the most abundant and diverse group of organisms in the Burgess Shale, followed closely by sponges.

What did the Anomalocaris eat?

Instead of eating solid food, Hagadorn suspects Anomalocaris stuck to softer items on the menu 500 million years ago, much the same way modern arthropods such as shrimp, crabs and lobsters do. “They mostly eat soft things, worms in the mud or soft microorganisms floating in water,” Hagadorn said.

What species of organisms were alive during the Cambrian period?

Ovatiovermis
VetulicoliaMetasprigginaEmmonsaspis
Cambrian/Organisms

What is the the Burgess Shale what discoveries were made there?

More than half a billion years old, the fossils of the Burgess Shale preserve an intriguing glimpse of early life on Earth. They were first discovered in 1909 by Charles D. This group of fossils takes its name from the Burgess Shale rock formation, named by Walcott after nearby Mount Burgess in the Canadian Rockies.

What two materials formed the rock of the Burgess Shale?

shale, any of a group of fine-grained, laminated sedimentary rocks consisting of silt- and clay-sized particles.

What was the significance of the Burgess Shale animal Pikaia?

The presence of a creature as complex as Pikaia some 530 million years ago reinforces the controversial view that the diversification of life must have extended back well before Cambrian times – perhaps deep into the Precambrian.

Is Anomalocaris an arthropod?

Anomalocaris, the largest known Cambrian arthropod. Palaeontology, 22, 3, 631–664.

What are some examples of living organisms around during the Cambrian explosion?

More than 20,000 fossil specimens were collected, including many soft bodied animals such as jellyfish, sea anemones and worms, as well as sponges, arthropods and algae.

What fossils were found in the Cambrian period?

CMN 344Cambrian / Fossils