My journey with Sir David Attenborough

Published

January 21, 2013

Author

Man wearing glasses and a white Petzl helmet with a cloudy sky and mountains in the background.

Jean-Bernard Caron

Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology

Two people sit and gesture on a rocky mountain trail with towering cliffs and distant peaks in the background.

Published

January 21, 2013

Author

Jean-Bernard Caron

Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology

For more information about the documentary, click here. For more information about the Burgess Shale click here, and for more information about the Gallery of Early Life and how you can help us, click here.

THE JOURNEY

White helicopter with red and yellow stripes parked on grass, with one person standing beside it.

Filming started October 1st 2009. Sir David Attenborough used a helicopter to reach the general area in Yoho National Park where the Burgess Shale is located, but he continued his journey on foot taking the same path that Walcott used to reach his quarry.

A group of six people standing on rocky terrain overlooking a mountain valley under a cloudy sky.

Waiting for the right moment to film along the trail below the main Burgess Shale site. In 1909, the first Burgess Shale fossils were discovered on this very same trail by Charles Walcott (click here for more info about the fossil discovery). Emerald Lake in the background.

A person in an orange and blue jacket with a hood, wearing a blue cap, sitting outdoors among dry plants.

It was a freezing day! Sir David Attenborough keeping warm.

An older man wearing a blue jacket and hat holds a dark, irregularly shaped artifact outdoors.

Sir David Attenborough talking about Anomalocaris canadensis, one of the most complete fossils of this kind anywhere, representing a large predator during the Cambrian period (this very specimen was discovered by the ROM). (Click here and check the videos and images of Anomalocaris!)

Two people wearing outdoor clothing sit and point at rocks on a mountainous trail with snow-capped peaks in the background.

After reaching the Walcott Quarry, Sir David Attenborough and myself (right) started a little discussion about the Burgess Shale that was eventually recorded on camera. The slabs of rock in front of us were covered of fossils!

Man in a blue jacket and blue hat holding a small black object, outdoors near a rocky surface.

Sir David Attenborough holding a fossil of Pikaia gracilens, one of our most distant relatives! (Click here and check the videos and images!)

Three people in outdoor clothing standing and bending over backpacks on a rocky, snowy slope with foggy gray sky.

The following day (October 2nd -2009), the sequence to the Trilobite Beds on Mt Stephen became hazardous, and we almost got trapped into a snow storm!

Museum exhibit space with framed black and white portraits on a red wall and a display case in the center.

A quick visit between two shots to see the Burgess Shale display at the Parks Canada Visitor Centre in Field (BC). Being in a National Park, the Burgess Shale is protected and access is limited to researchers with permits.

However, visitors can take a Parks Canada guided tour to the Burgess Shale during the summertime.

Videography crew filming a person sitting on a stool in a forest clearing surrounded by tall grass and trees.

Filming around Emerald Lake

A man wearing a blue jacket and beige pants sits on a rock outdoors, holding a large, irregularly shaped dark rock.

Sir David Attenborough holding a slab of one of his favourite friends, trilobites! This particular slab comes from the Trilobite Beds (about the same age as the Burgess Shale) on Mt Stephen and contains several specimens of Ogygopsis klotzi.

A group of eight people standing outdoors on gravel with a lake and misty forested hills in the background.

Sir David Attenborough (center left) and myself (extreme right) with the film crew from Atlantic Productions in front of Emerald Lake. The Burgess Shale is just behind the lake, in the background higher up on the slopes below the clouds!