COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: A Remarkable New Fossil Assemblage from the Burgess Shale at Marble Canyon, Kootenay National Park

寒武纪？爆炸？是地球生命史上的一件大事这一幕见证了几乎所有主要动物类群（门）的起源和迅速多样化，将整个地质记录分为两个部分，前寒武纪和古生代。到目前为止，这一事件的最佳记录来自少数特殊的化石沉积，保存了？软？，生物体的非生物矿化组织，通常不会在化石记录中留下痕迹。这些沉积物不仅提供了早期进化模式的一个引人注目的视角，而且有助于揭示动物家谱的基本结构。最近，在大理石峡谷附近的伯吉斯页岩中发现了几十年来最重要的寒武纪化石组合。该项目旨在通过多学科方法提供新化石组合及其地质和地球化学背景的基线特征，这将为本科生和博士后学者提供实践培训。该项目的目标是：1。通过勘探和采石记录新化石动物群的地理范围和组成; 2.利用地球化学和沉积学方法重建这些化石组合繁荣的古代环境的性质; 3.制定锶同位素年代学，将所有伯吉斯页岩地点在相对时间内联系起来; 4.以确定大教堂陡崖的起源，这是一个神秘的地形特征，是伯吉斯页岩地质历史的核心。

The Cambrian ?explosion? was a singular event in the history of life on Earth. This episode, which saw the origin and rapid diversification of almost all major groups of animals (phyla), serves to divide the entire geologic record into two parts, the Precambrian and Phanerozoic Eons. By far, the best records of this event come from a handful of exceptional fossil deposits that preserve the ?soft?, non-biomineralized tissues of organisms that normally leave no trace in the fossil record. Such deposits offer not only a remarkable view of the early patterns of evolution, but have helped to reveal the basic structure of the animal family tree. Recently, the most important Cambrian fossil assemblage discovered in decades was reported from the Burgess Shale near Marble Canyon. This project seeks to provide baseline characterization of the new fossil assemblage and its geological and geochemical context though a multi-disciplinary approach, which will provide hands on training for undergraduates and a postdoctoral scholar. The goals of the project are: 1. to document the geographic extent and composition of the new fossil fauna by exploration and quarrying; 2. to use geochemical and sedimentologic methods to reconstruct the nature of ancient environments in which these fossil assemblages thrived; 3. to develop a strontium isotope chronology linking all Burgess Shale localities in relative time, and; 4. to determine the origin of the Cathedral Escarpment, an enigmatic topographic feature that is central to the Geologic history of the Burgess Shale.