Research
Burgess Shale Projects
The Cambrian radiation represents the sudden worldwide appearance and rapid diversification of animals. The record of this critical event is documented in a series of exceptional fossil deposits with preservation of soft-bodied animals, especially in China and Canada. The Middle Cambrian (505 million-year-old) Burgess Shale, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, is certainly the most famous locality of its kind. Burgess Shale fossils are preserved with stunning clarity, providing an unprecedented source of ecological and biological information not available in most fossil deposits.
The Burgess Shale projects are a series of integrated and collaborative research programs that Jean-Bernard Caron, Associate Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology, implemented soon after joining the ROM in early 2006. These projects are primarily focused on the study of fossils from the extensive Burgess Shale collection, with the intent to fulfil the ROM's collaborative agreement with Parks Canada (for whom we hold the fossils in trust) to present (interpret) Burgess Shale fossils to the public (as stipulated by the World Heritage Convention of UNESCO).
The first paper to be published from this research program appeared in the July 13, 2006 issue of the international science journal Nature (see below). Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology, David Rudkin, was also involved in this study. In this paper, the authors reinterpreted the problematic animal Odontogriphus from the Burgess Shale as a member of an ancestral group of shell-less and grazing molluscs, based on hundreds of new specimens showing exquisite soft-tissue preservation. They also proposed that Odontogriphus and Wiwaxia (another enigmatic fossil from the Burgess Shale) were related and shared an ancestor in the Ediacaran Period, possibly allied to Kimberella, known from Russia and Australia. This research story was widely circulated in the press (e.g., Globe and Mail, CBC News) and radio (e.g. Radio Canada International, CBC French Radio programs).
Jean-Bernard has also established collaborative projects with colleagues in China to quantitatively sample Lower Cambrian localities containing soft-bodied preservation in southwest China (Yunnan province) for direct comparisons with Burgess Shale material.
Curators
Jean-Bernard Caron
Recent Publications
| 2009 | Zhao, F., J.-B. Caron, SX Hu, and M. Zhu. " Quantitative analysis of taphofacies and paleocommunities in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte." Palaois, 24: 826-839. |
| 2009 | Pettersson, S., L.E. Holmer, and J.B. Caron. "First record of a pediculate linguloid from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale." Acta Zoologica, 89: 1-13. |
| 2009 | Daley, A.C., G.E. Budd, J.-B. Caron, G.D. Edgecombe, and D. Collins. "The Burgess Shale Anomalocaridid Hurdia and its Significance for Early Euarthropod Evolution." Science, 323: 1597-1600. |
| 2008 | Caron, J.B. "Palaeontology: Ancient worms in armour." Nature, 451(7175): 133-134. |
| 2008 | Caron, J.B., and D.A. Jackson. "Paleoecology of the Greater Phyllopod Bed Community, Burgess Shale." Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 258(3): 222-256. |
| 2007 | Vannier, J., J.B. Caron, J.L. Yuan, D. Briggs, D. Collins, Y.L. Zhao, and M.Y. Zhu. "Tuzoia: morphology and lifestyle of a giant bivalved arthropod of the Cambrian seas." Journal of Paleontology, 81(3): 445-471. |
| 2007 | Caron, J.B., A.H. Scheltema, C. Schander, and D. Rudkin. "Reply to Butterfield on stem-group 'worms': fossil lophotrochozoans in the Burgess Shale." BioEssays, 29(2): 200-202. |
| 2007 | Conway Morris, S., and J.B. Caron. "Halwaxiids and the Early Evolution of the Lophotrochozoans." Science, 315: 1255-1258. |
| 2006 | Caron, J.B. and D.A. Jackson. "Taphonomy of the greater phyllopod bed community, Burgess Shale." Palaios, 21(5): 451-465. View Cover (PDF): Canadia from the Burgess Shale © SEPM-2006. |
| 2006 | Caron, J.B., A.H. Scheltema, C. Schander, and D. Rudkin. "A soft-bodied mollusc with radula from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale." Nature, 442(7099): 159-163. |
Publications List ( PDF)
Galleries
Natural History Highlights - Burgess Shale
Primeval Predators™
Buy toy models of the Burgess Shale fossils
Podcasts
Burgess Shale Collection Storage
December 14, 2006
Associate Curator Jean-Bernard Caron takes us behind-the-scenes for a brief peak at the collection storage for the Burgess Shale fossils.
Video Podcast (4 MB, 4m 31s)
Written Transcript (PDF)
Burgess Shale
November 16, 2006
Associate Curator, Jean-Bernard Caron presents an overview of the fossil collection from the Burgess Shale, B.C., highlighting a number of specimens.
Video Podcast (4 MB, 5m 09s)
Written Transcript (PDF)
Academic Links
University of Toronto - Geology Department
University of Toronto - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
ROM News releases
ROM collections reveal 500 million-year-old monster predator
Jean-Bernard Caron describes a new body-armoured species from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale.
Jean-Bernard Caron, David Rudkin and colleagues describe world’s oldest soft-bodied mollusc
Celebrating 100 years of Burgess Shale
Burgess shale in the Media
Shale of the century: mining the rich seam of the Burgess Shale
Burgess Shale Virtual Exhibit
The Burgess Shale: Evolution's Big Bang
Re-examining the Burgess Shale
Related to Hurdia:
Les années lumière: Une semaine riche en découvertes paléontologiques - l'interview a la Radio-Canada
Related to Orthrozanclus:
Dunham, Will. "Spiky oddball prowled ocean half billion years ago." Reuters 2 Mar. 2007
Les années lumière: Fossile révélateur - l'interview a la Radio-Canada
Related to Odontogriphus:
"Fossils reveal world's oldest soft-bodied mollusc."' CBC News 12 July 2006.
Other Links
Yoho National Park
UNESCO World Heritage site
International Conference on the Cambrian Explosion - Banff, Alberta, August 3-7, 2009
(Note: The conference is now over, but click to see abstracts and group picture.)
International Conference on the Cambrian Explosion - Banff, Alberta, August 3 to 7, 2009.
(Note: The conference is now over, but click to see abstracts and group picture.)
More information
Image of Hurdia victoria, ROM 59252. Photo credit: J.-B. Caron.
© AAAS/Science -2009. Reconstruction of Hurdia victoria by Marianne Collins.
Laying out a metre-square grid prior to collecting, Yunnan, China, 2005. Image courtesy of Fangchen Zhang.
Specimens of Odontogriphus omalus from the ROM Burgess Shale collections. Photo credit: J.-B. Caron, with permission from Parks Canada.
© AAAS/Science -2007. Reconstruction of Orthrozanclus reburrus by Marianne Collins.
