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A Geoscience Guide to The Burgess Shale. Geology and Paleontology in Yoho National Park

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A Geoscience Guide to
The
Burgess
Shale
Geology and Paleontology
in Yoho National Park
Murray Coppold and Wayne Powell
The Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation
Opabinia
is one of the
strangest Burgess
Shale fossils. Its side
flaps and finned tail
indicate it was a swimmer.
Its two most remarkable
features are the frontal
appendage which ended in a
grasping claw, and its five stalked eyes. In the artist’s painting (above)
Opabinia is seen capturing the priapulid worm Ottoia.
Wiwaxia (Phylum not assigned)
Wiwaxia is a slug-like creature whose top surface was covered with
leaf-shape ribbed plates (sclerites) and two rows of longer spines.
These are often preserved as a flattened mass of armour, as in
the illustration at right, which hides the details of the soft tissue.
Occasionally a radula bearing two rows of teeth is seen at the
anterior (head) end of the organism. Wiwaxia has been considered a
polychaete (bristle worm), but this
interpretation is controversial. It
crawled along the sea floor, feeding
on organic detritus.
Nectocaris (Phylum not assigned)
Nectocaris is extremely rare in the Burgess Shale which, together with
its streamlined body, suggests it was a swimmer unlikely to have been
caught in mudflows. Its head is protected by a pair of oval shields.
With large eyes and a pair of frontal appendages, Nectocaris was
probably a swift-moving
predator.
Opabinia (Phylum Arthropoda,
Class Dinocarida)
© Royal Ontario Museum. J-B Caron. All r ights reserved .
1 cm
2 cm
5 mm
© Smithsonian Institution. Mar y Parrish. All rig hts reserved.
42 43
A Geoscience Guide to
The
Burgess
Shale
Geology and Paleontology
in Yoho National Park
Murray Coppold and Wayne Powell
The Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation
A Geoscience Guide to
THE BURGESS SHALE
Topics:
Yoho National Park
e Meaning of World Heritage
About Time
e Rise of the Rockies
e Cambrian World
At the Edge of an Ancient Continent
Evolution and the Burgess Shale
e Burgess Shale Quarries
Fossils of the Burgess Shale
Trilo bites
Trilobite Lifestyles
Trilobites of the Burgess Shale Formation
Climate Change
Weathering the Mountains
References
The Story of Life’s Beginnings
Centred on the world’s most important animal fossils, this book weaves plate
tectonics, mountain building, evolution, soft-bodied fossils and trilobites into
a story of life’s beginnings half a billion years ago, and its preservation in the
Burgess Shale deposit in Yoho National Park.
e second edition of this popular book adds new fossil images and
artwork in an expanded presentation, and incorporates new information on
paleontology and climate change. e guide is written in accessible style for
students, teachers and the interested public. Geoscience professionals will
appreciate its synthesis of up-to-date research.
Over 100 illustrations in 76 pages!
Coppold, Murray and Wayne Powell, 2006. A Geoscience Guide to the Burgess Shale. e Burgess
Shale Geoscience Foundation, Field, B.C., Second edition, soft cover, iv + 76 p., colour illustr.
ISBN 0-9780132-0-4
$15.95
“… packed with useful information, as well as being interesting,
accessible, and well illustrated and designed.”
— Prof. Derek E.G. Briggs, Yale University, U.S.A.
“e ‘must-have’ pocket guide for the hike.”
— Barry & Gillian Mapstone, e Linnean Society of London
(Comments on the rst edition)
Ordering information
In Canada and the US call ---
Worldwide contact The Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation
P.O. Box , Field BC V0A 1G0, Canada
www.burgess-shale.bc.ca
plus tax and postage
... A plot of global climate through time for the last billion years and extending some 100 Ma into the future (Fig. 1) shows that the Earth has experienced alternating periods of greenhouse and icehouse climate (Coppold & Powell 2000). There appears to be cyclicity in this global climate record, with the greenhouse periods lasting some 250 Ma and the icehouse periods lasting around 100 Ma. ...
... The maximum extent of ice cover during the main periods of glaciation, as inferred from the preservation of glacigenic sediments and climate modelling, is shown in degrees of latitude from the poles. Ice extent data in past after Crowell (1999); global climate change based on geological data as summarized by Coppold & Powell (2000). with total reserves of some 57 Bboe (billion barrels of oil equivalent) and a Palaeozoic petroleum system with total reserves of around 50 Bboe (see Lottaroli et al. 2009). ...
Global Neoproterozoic Petroleum Systems: The Emerging Potential in North Africa
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2009
The Neoproterozoic Eon is relatively poorly known from a petroleum perspective, despite the existence of producing, proven and potential plays in many parts of the world. In tectonic, climatic and petroleum systems terms, the Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian period can be divided into three distinct phases: a Tonian to Early Cryogenian phase, prior to about 750 Ma, dominated by the formation, stabilization and initial break-up of the supercontinent of Rodinia; a mid Cryogenian to Early Ediacaran phase ( c . 750–600 Ma) including the major global-scale ‘Sturtian’ and ‘Marinoan’ glaciations and a mid Ediacaran to Early Cambrian ( c . post 600 Ma) phase corresponding with the formation and stabilization of the Gondwana Supercontinent. There is increasing evidence that deposition of many mid to late Neoproterozoic (to Early Palaeozoic) organic-rich units was triggered by strong post-glacial sea level rise on a global scale, following the ‘Snowball Earth’ type glaciations, coupled with basin development and rifting on a more local scale. Fieldwork in North Africa including the Taoudenni Basin in Mauritania, Algeria and Mali; the Anti-Atlas region of Morocco and the Cyrenaica, Kufra and Murzuk basins in Libya has added to the understanding of reservoir, source and seal relationships and confirmed the widespread presence of Precambrian stromatolitic carbonate units of potential reservoir facies. Current research on the chronostratigraphy, distribution and quality of source rocks, controls on reservoir quality and distribution of seals in the Precambrian–Early Cambrian hydrocarbon plays throughout South America, North Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent is documented in this Special Publication.
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... (c) Total number of Phanerozoic marine genera showing similar faunal diversity patterns in the aftermath of Gondwana and Pangaea assemblies. Sources: (a) Puetz et al. (2018); (b) Craig et al. (2009); warm and cool climate fromCoppold and Powell (2000); ...
The assembly of Pangea: geodynamic conundrums revisited
Article
  • Jun 2024
Geodynamic models for Pangea assembly require knowledge of Paleozoic mantle convection patterns. Application of basic geodynamic principles to Neoproterozoic–Paleozoic plate reconstructions yields Pangea in the incorrect configuration (predicting that Pangea should have formed by consumption of the exterior paleo-Pacific Ocean instead of Iapetus, Rheic, and Proto-Tethys oceans). We contend that the mantle legacy of Late Neoproterozoic–Cambrian amalgamation of Gondwana must be factored into models for Pangea amalgamation. Proxy data suggest that the mantle downwelling driving Pan-African collisions and Gondwana assembly evolved into a mantle upwelling as evidenced by the interplay between subduction-related and plume-related tectonics around the periphery of Gondwana. Orthoversion theory, whereby a supercontinent assembles ∼90° away from the centre of the previous supercontinent, suggests that Gondwana amalgamated above an intense downwelling along a meridional subduction girdle that bisected two antipodal sub-equatorial upwellings. Several processes beneath and around Gondwana reduced the intensity of the original downwelling, as evidenced by plume-related activity along its margins, initiation of subduction zone roll-back, and the export of terranes from Gondwana that collided with the margin of Laurentia–Baltica. As upwelling beneath it intensified, Gondwana migrated along the girdle until it collided with Laurentia–Baltica, resulting in the final assembly of Pangea.
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... 81,164,[189][190][191][192] breakup-related global warming with a strong positive feedback. 198,199 Not surprisingly, therefore, supercontinent breakup tends to coincide with climatic warming, as evidenced by the "greenhouse" climates of the Mesozoic, early Paleozoic, and much of the Tonian, 124,200,201 following the breakup of Pangea, Pannotia, and Rodinia, respectively ( Figure 7). The introduction of large amounts of CO 2 into the oceans during supercontinent breakup and dispersal has also been linked to increased carbon burial and black shale abundance, 70 while the increased run-off of terrigenous nutrients in warmer climates has been coupled to oceanic anoxia. ...
The supercontinent cycle and Earth's long‐term climate
Article
Full-text available
Earth's long‐term climate has been profoundly influenced by the episodic assembly and breakup of supercontinents at intervals of ca. 500 m.y. This reflects the cycle's impact on global sea level and atmospheric CO2 (and other greenhouse gases), the levels of which have fluctuated in response to variations in input from volcanism and removal (as carbonate) by the chemical weathering of silicate minerals. Supercontinent amalgamation tends to coincide with climatic cooling due to drawdown of atmospheric CO2 through enhanced weathering of the orogens of supercontinent assembly and a thermally uplifted supercontinent. Conversely, breakup tends to coincide with increased atmospheric CO2 and global warming as the dispersing continental fragments cool and subside, and weathering decreases as sea level rises. Supercontinents may also influence global climate through their causal connection to mantle plumes and large igneous provinces (LIPs) linked to their breakup. LIPs may amplify the warming trend of breakup by releasing greenhouse gases or may cause cooling and glaciation through sulfate aerosol release and drawdown of CO2 through the chemical weathering of LIP basalts. Hence, Earth's long‐term climatic trends likely reflect the cycle's influence on sea level, as evidenced by Pangea, whereas its influence on LIP volcanism may have orchestrated between Earth's various climatic states.
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... Evidence of glaciation in the Earth's sedimentary record extends from the Archaean (2.9 Ga: Young et al. 1998) to the present day. For the last billion years at least, the Earth has experienced alternating periods of greenhouse and icehouse climate (Coppold & Powell 2000), with the greenhouse periods lasting about 250 million years and the icehouse periods lasting around 100 million years. These cycles can themselves be grouped into three longer supercycles, each lasting about 300 to 350 million years ( Fig. 2; Craig et al. 2009). ...
Glaciogenic Reservoirs and Hydrocarbon Systems
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2012
Glaciogenic reservoirs host important hydrocarbon and groundwater resources across the globe. Their complexity and importance for exploration and palaeoclimate reconstruction have made glaciogenic successions popular subjects for study. In this paper we provide an overview of the palaeoclimatic and tectonic setting for Earth glaciation and a chronological account of glaciogenic deposits since c. 750 Ma, with particular emphasis on their reservoir potential and associated hydrocarbon systems. Hydrocarbon accumulations within glaciogenic reservoirs occur principally in Palaeozoic (Late Ordovician and Permo-Carboniferous) sandstones in South America, Australia, North Africa and the Middle East, with relatively minor occurrences of shallow gas hosted in Pleistocene deposits in the North Sea and Canada. Groundwater reserves occur within glaciogenic sandstones across the northern European lowland and in North America. The main glaciogenic environments range from subglacial to glacier front to proglacial and deglacial. Rapidly changing environments, hydrodynamic regimes and glacier-front and subglacial deformation often result in very complex glaciogenic sequences with significant challenges for reconstruction of their origin and resource importance, which this volume seeks to address.
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... Not only did the study of these N500 Myr old fossil organisms (often retaining soft-tissue details) forever change the way we view early animal evolution, but it also introduced the scientific community to a poorly understood suite of mixed carbonate and siliciclastic rocks in the Kicking Horse Pass region, of which the Burgess Shale is part. During the decades since its discovery, a vast literaturewith its associated controversieshas amassed steadily on the Burgess Shale, but almost exclusively with respect to the taxonomy and paleoecology of the nonbiomineralized fossils (Coppold and Powell, 2000). ...
Reinterpretation of ‘Middle’ Cambrian stratigraphy of the rifted western Laurentian margin: Burgess Shale Formation and contiguous units (Sauk II megasequence), Rocky Mountains, Canada
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2009
  • PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL
Until recently, research on the renowned fossil animals of the Burgess Shale has advanced to a greater degree than an understanding of the rocks in which they are found. Studies addressing lithostratigraphy and hydrothermal petrography of the so-called ‘inner carbonate belt’ and adjacent Chancellor Group, however, have begun to re-evaluate long-standing hypotheses on the Middle Cambrian of Western Canada. Tectonic activity along the Kicking Horse Rim (buried remnants of Neoproterozoic rifting) during the Cambrian Period had more influence on local sedimentation than previously thought. Notably, large-scale collapse of the Cathedral carbonate platform margin at ∼ 509 Ma BP is evidence of reactivated basement faults. These failures produced listric Megatruncation Surfaces, having near vertical escarpments (> 150 m in height) where they terminate against the platform. The majority of what have been interpreted as shed olistoliths from the Cathedral platform margin is herein shown instead to be carbonate mud mounds. These grew in situ along the face of the Cathedral Escarpment, and are associated with fossiliferous intervals in overlying basinal mudstones at three distinct stratigraphic horizons (two within the Burgess Shale) during the Delamaran and Marjuman stages. The mounds nucleated where deep-seated normal faults intersected the seafloor, building primarily during periods of relative sea level transgression. Mound growth is associated with syndepositional exhalative activity, inferred from stratigraphic relations, sedimentology, and geochemistry. The new name Monarch Formation is proposed for the initial post-collapse beds and mounds deposited against the Cathedral Escarpment (early Glossopleura Zone); the variably-defined term ‘Takakkaw Tongue’ is thereby confined to pre-collapse slope deposits coeval to and correlative with the Cathedral Formation.
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