Natural History; Programs and Events; From the Field

Sir David Attenborough has been filming Nature all his life. In 2009, at the age of 83, he traveled the world again to discover how Life began and diversified into the myriad of organisms that form the basis of today's biodiversity. The result of this journey is the beautiful documentary, "First Life," that won three Emmy Awards in 2011. The new ROM Gallery of Early Life anticipated to open by the end of 2014 will feature some of the key fossils shown in the documentary, many of those will come from our own ROM collections! 

 

The origin of animals represents a turning point in Life history. About half a billion years ago all the major animal groups that are still around us today appear in the fossil record. One of the best sites in the world to study this key interval in Life history is the 505 million year old Burgess Shale in Yoho National Park, British Columbia. As an expert of the Burgess Shale biota, I was invited to accompany Sir David Attenborough to the field. Here are few snapshots from the Burgess Shale I took during this specific trip.