The Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada, is famous for the preservation of bizarre and distinctive animal fossils, like Anomalocaris, Hallucigenia, and Marella (shown at right).
Since its discovery over 100 years ago, other Burgess Shale faunas have been found in strata of similar age around the world, but the fauna appeared to have died out by the end of the Middle Cambrian.
The recent discovery of a Burgess Shale type fauna in Morocco from rocks millions years younger than the Burgess Shale breathes life into a fauna that was thought to be long extinct--including animals like Marella, above, left.
The apparent extinction of the Burgess Shale animals was probably a result of the rarity of the exceptional circumstances required to preserve soft-bodied organisms. The discovery opens the door to finding other, younger Burgess Shale type faunas around the world.
Source and photo credit: Peter Van Roy, et al., 2010, Ordovician faunas of Burgess Shale type. Nature 465:215-218.
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