Scientists have identified a mineral signature for sites that are more likely to contain rare fossils that preserve evidence of soft tissue — essential information to understanding ancient life. Much ...

It was as if the fossil was grinning at us at the secrets it had been hiding,” said Dr. Martin Smith, but he remembered the time when a 500-million-year-old riddle all at once became clear.

At least it was a quick death. Scientists have discovered that ancient animals preserved in the famous Burgess Shale fossil deposit were killed by a mud slurry that buried them so deep their whole ...

The rich fossil repository known as the Burgess Shale was first discovered a century ago. Siobhan Roberts The fossil-hunting expedition began with a lung-busting hike, accompanied by an incessant ring ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. David Bressan is a geologist who covers curiosities about Earth. Until now, it has been widely accepted that the fossils found in ...

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the fossil-rich Burgess Shale in British Columbia by Charles Doolittle Walcott, the fourth secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The ...

The Burgess Shale in British Columbia is renowned for its exceptional preservation of soft tissues in fossils, including limbs and guts. While trilobites are abundant in the fossil record thanks to ...

Fossils of any type of jellyfish are extremely rare, according to the study. The new study helps underscore the Cambrian period as a critical time for jellyfish evolution. Jellyfish and their ...

YOHO NATIONAL PARK, British Columbia - If the history of Earth is condensed to fit in a single, 24-hour day, life emerges sometime before dawn. Photosynthesis evolves around midmorning, and the ...

Researchers at the Royal Ontario Museum and the University of Toronto have described an exceptionally well-preserved new fossil species of bristle worm called Kootenayscolex barbarensis. Discovered ...

Fossils that preserve entire organisms (including both hard and soft body parts) are critical to our understanding of evolution and ancient life on Earth. However, these exceptional deposits are ...

The deposit contains more than 50 unknown species from the Cambrian Explosion. This is an Inside Science story. (Inside Science) -- A new trove of outstandingly preserved fossils in China from the ...