Primeval Ringed Worm

Canadia spinosa. Burgess Pass, Canada. 505 million years.

The deposits at Burgess Pass give a unique picture of the ancient animal world. Primeval beings – including soft tissue – have been preserved here.

505 MILLION YEARS AGO...
Burgess Pass is located in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and was discovered back in 1909 by Charles Walcott. Walcott subsequently devoted his life to searching for fossils in Burgess Pass. By the age of 74, he had assembled the remains of 65,000 creatures from the early days of the Earth. He tried to classify all the findings within the system of species currently living. However, the worms and arthropods of Burgess Pass are only remotely related to modern species, or belong to groups which have long since ceased to exist. Their true value for researching the history of life was only understood in the 1960s.
Since the quarry at Burgess Pass was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980, collecting fossils is only exceptionally permitted. The NHM acquired this ringed worm from the US National Museum of Natural History in 1952.
In the Cambrian period, some 540 million years ago, animals began to form hard body parts to protect themselves against predators. The Burgess Pass fossils also have spines and armor as defences. The emergence of the first predators became a driver of evolution. However, the special feature of the finds at Burgess Pass is that besides the hard body parts, the fine-grained shale has preserved the remains of soft body parts. 505-million-year-old impressions of skin, body outlines, mouth parts, and extremities are preserved here – for paleontologists a unique opportunity to follow one of the decisive early phases in the evolution of life.