Burgess Shale Projects

Around half a billion years ago, the fossil record recorded a sudden worldwide appearance and rapid diversification of animals . This critical event, known as the Cambrian radiation, is known from a series of exceptional fossil deposits in which soft-bodied animals are preserved, especially deposits in China and Canada. The Burgess Shale is one of the most famous such sites. Located in the UNESCO World Heritage Canadian Rocky Mountain Park in British Columbia, the Burgess Shale is famous for its exquisite preservation of soft-bodied animals dating from the middle Cambrian period (around 506 million years ago). The exceptional detail preserved in Burgess Shale fossils provides an unprecedented source of ecological and biological information not available in most other fossil deposits, enabling a much better understanding of the early diversity and early evolution of most of the major modern animal groups that we know today.

2025 will mark 50 years of ROM research at the Burgess Shale. Dr. Desmond Collins led the first eighteen field expeditions between 1975 and 2000, dwarfing all previous collections combined since Charles Walcott’s discovery of the Burgess Shale in 1909. Dr. Caron has led ten additional field expeditions since 2008 and planned more future fieldwork. These latest fieldwork activities have led to spectacular discoveries, sometimes recorded in documentaries, including of new sites in Kootenay National Park near Marble Canyon. The Marble Canyon sites have yielded a rich fauna with some of the best preserved Cambrian fishes, and a plethora of other new species, including new arthropod mandibulates and chelicerates, annelids and the bizarre spaceship-shaped animals Cambroraster and Titanokorys. 

Dr. Caron’s current research projects are primarily field-based but also focus on particular groups of fossils from the ROM’s extensive Burgess Shale collection. The ROM collections are actively used by researchers but are also a valuable resource for science education including for public exhibits, outreach and programming activities. New research is also often shared to the public  by Parks Canada interpreters during summer guided hikes (Visit the Parks Canada Burgess Shale page here). Dr. Caron’s research would not be possible without collaborators, especially students from the University of Toronto. Dr. Caron has trained a dozen graduate students since joining the ROM, many of whom have participated in numerous public programing events at the ROM and elsewhere, as well as in media interviews including for the New York Times, New Scientist, Reuters, BBC, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian. Some students also participated in TV documentaries (i.e. the CBC production The Nature of Things in 2019). Dr. Caron’s research is principally funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada discovery grant, internal ROM research grants, and grants from private donors, especially from the Albert and Barbara Milstein and the Polk Family Foundations. 

For a full list of Burgess Shale stories, see "Publications" below and visit the ROM-Parks Canada Burgess Shale Website to learn more. 

Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron 

Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology

Area: Natural History

Interests: Burgess Shale, Cambrian Explosion, Evolution, Origin of animals, Palaeoecology

Exhibitions and Galleries:  Willner Madge Gallery, Dawn of Life | Level 2