Result from the Burgess Shale #paleostream! This piece turned into one of the busiest yet, and yet we only scratch the surface here! Burgess Shale is a fossil bearing deposit high up in the Canadian Rockies and is sometimes called the "most important fossil locality of all time"
This Cambrian lagerstätte is famous for animals like Anomalocaris and Opabinia but it's beginnings are humble. Found by Walcott in 1909 the incredible fossils were at first sorted in familiar groups with only renewed interest in the 60s revealing the alien world we can observe here.
Because Burgess ranges in time, space and preserved fauna we focused on a single locality: the original Walcott quarry. It's suited at the base of the Cathedral Escarpment, a cliff that represents the former edge of an submerged platform, visible to this day. That means the site
was at least 100 meter, but probably more like 150 to 200 meters below seal level. A place that was reached by very little natural light. Such environmental conditions also promote a certain look in animals. Despite having eyes one can assume that animals down here weren't super...
...colorful or patterned. As such I focused more on the many bizarre shapes and the overall vibes certain spots in this ecosystem could create. Walcott was largely dominated by a flat, muddy bottom, so I put the scene next to the escarpment around a denser patch of sponges.
Despite that, many faunal elements remain absent here. As you can see in this size chart by Discord member Prehistorica, even just this quarry is a true treasure trove that still yields new species to this day!
As a side note this piece was inspired by Gothic architecture and images of WW1 zeppelin air raids.
