Kootenay National Park. Photograph by Yetiwriter
Fossils chiselled from rocks in a canyon in Canada’s Kootenay National Park offers some of the best record of early life on Earth according to researchers.
The fossils discovered have preserved “soft parts”, including internal organs, of ancient animals that offer a better view of the Cambrian period, with researchers collecting more than 3,000 fossils of 55 species, 15 new to science, since the site was uncovered.
the first fossils were spotted in a mountain cliff in Marble Canyon, about 42km south east of the famous Bugess Shale site which has produced a number of important fossil finds over the last two decades.
A number of the species discovered in Marble Canyon are also found in China’s Chengjiang fossil beds, forcing scientists to re-examine the period in which they lived.