The Burgess Shale preserves organisms like trilobites in breathtaking detail. “These are some of the first sea-dwelling animals captured during the flood. What makes this find so exceptional is that both hard-body and soft-body creatures were preserved in exquisite detail. This graveyard shows the magically different body forms of creatures living at the bottom of the ocean before the flood. From a fossil record perspective, these creatures are the very lowest fossils – there is nothing complex

There’s a ‘new’ fossil discovery at ROM! Jean-Bernard Caron (Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology) shows us a new moth-like predator from the 506-million-year-old Burgess Shale of British Columbia, which is one of the most important palaeontological sites in the world. This year marks the 50th anniversary of ROM’s expeditions to the Burgess Shale: visit the Willner Madge Gallery, Dawn of Life on the second floor at ROM to explore some other remarkable discoveries, or learn more