Geologic History: A History of Life on Earth

A History of Life on Earth: Introduction

Artist’s depiction of Opabinia, a Burgess Shale animal that lived in Cambrian seas.

Opabinia

 Artist’s depiction of Hallucigenia, a Burgess Shale animal that lived in Cambrian seas.

Hallucigenia

The Burgess Shale Fossils

Some of the most famous fossils in the world are located in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia. These records of past life are from the beginning of the Phanerozoic Eon also called the Cambrian Explosion. Animals found in the Burgess Shale Fossils were all marine organisms, yet fit into no modern classification of organism. The Opabinia had five stalked eyes, a backward-facing mouth, and a long hose-like nose, much like the hose of a vacuum cleaner. Another was so strange looking it was simply named Hallucigenia. One modern scientist, Stephen Jay Gould, has hypothesized that the Burgess Shale animals were like life’s “experiments,” destined to become extinct. In this section, you will learn about the diversity of life through geologic time.