New Burgess shale type fauna in the Middle Cambrian Stephen Formation on Mt. Stephen, British Columbia
Excavation of a fossil locality discovered in 1981 on Mount Stephen, 5 km south of the Burgess shale site on Mount Wapta, has yielded about 1000 specimens of a new soft-bodied and lightly-sclerotized fauna. The fauna includes the trilobite, Glossopleura, which is characteristic of the lower part of the Stephen Formation, 100 m or more stratigraphically below the level of the Burgess shale fauna. The arthropod, Alalcomenaeus, a genus extremely rare in the Burgess shale, is by far the most numerous, followed by a new, fishlike arthropod with prominent eyes, and Branchiocaris, another extremely rare Burgess shale arthropod. Many Burgess shale animals are present, although the most common, Marrella, is absent. They include the arthropods Canadaspis, Naraoia, Plenocaris and Tuzoia, the worms Ottoia and Burgessochaeta, the onychophoran Aysheaia, the sponge Leptomitus, Wiwaxia of unknown affinities, and Fasciculus, a possible ctenophore. The Glossopleura fauna thus adds extant and extinct invertebrate groups to those already known in the Middle Cambrian epoch, mostly from the Burgess shale. It also demonstrates that the animals preserved in the Stephen Formation are evolutionarily stable.
- Research Organization:
- Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (Canada)
- OSTI ID:
- 6614367
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8510489-
- Journal Information:
- Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States), Vol. 17; Conference: 98. annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Orlando, FL, USA, 28 Oct 1985
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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