New fossil bed discovered in British Columbia

A leading paleontologist says he and his team have discovered what they believe could be the most significant new fossil bed to be discovered in three decades, the Calgary Herald Reports.

This summer, Jean-Bernard Caron, curator of invertebrate paleontology with the Royal Ontario Museum, and his team found an “important new site” in the Burgess Shale, a famous fossil bed in Kootenay national park in British Columbia. He says the new site contains evidence of new organisms and a number of rare species, thought only to exist at the famous Walcott Quarry, which is located in Alberta and contains one of the world’s best collections of fossilized, prehistoric sea creatures.

While Caron insists he cannot say much about the new site or the fossils they found until they have been properly researched and reviewed, he does say that the findings will be “very important in the future” and hopefully add to our understanding of prehistory and evolution.