Paleocommunity Analysis of the Burgess Shale Tulip Beds, Mount Stephen, British Columbia: Comparison with the Walcott Quarry and Implications for Community Variation in the Burgess Shale

Paleobiology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna J. O’Brien ◽  
Jean-Bernard Caron
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
National Park ◽  
Suspension Feeding ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Diversity Patterns ◽  
Ecological Patterns ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Chengjiang Biota ◽  
Community Variation ◽  
Taxonomic Groups

AbstractThe Tulip Beds locality on Mount Stephen (Yoho National Park, British Columbia) yields one of the most abundant and diverse (~10,000 specimens in 110 taxa) Burgess Shale fossil assemblages in the Canadian Rockies. Detailed semi quantitative and quantitative analyses of this assemblage suggest strong similarities with the Walcott Quarry on Fossil Ridge. Both assemblages are dominated by epibenthic, sessile, and suspension feeding taxa, mostly represented by arthropods and sponges and have comparable diversity patterns, despite sharing only about half the genera. However, the Tulip Beds has a higher relative abundance of suspension feeders and taxa of unknown affinity compared to the Walcott Quarry. These biotic variations are probably largely attributable to ecological and evolutionary differences between the two temporally distinct communities that adapted to similar, but not identical, environmental settings. For instance, the Tulip Beds is farther away from the Cathedral Escarpment than the Walcott Quarry. The Tulip Beds and Walcott Quarry assemblages are more similar to each other than either one is to the assemblages of the Chengjiang biota, although the relative diversity of major taxonomic groups and ecological patterns are similar in all assemblages. The conserved diversity patterns and ecological structures among sites suggest that the ecological composition of Cambrian Burgess Shale-type communities was relatively stable across wide geographic and temporal scales.

scholarly journals A reexamination of Yuknessia from the Cambrian of British Columbia and Utah

2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven T. LoDuca ◽  
Jean-Bernard Caron ◽  
James D. Schiffbauer ◽  
Shuhai Xiao ◽  
Anthony Kramer
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
British Columbia ◽  
National Park ◽  
Red Alga ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Phylogenetic Affinity ◽  
New Material ◽  
Scanning Electron

AbstractTo investigate the phylogenetic affinity of Yuknessia simplex Walcott, 1919, scanning electron microscopy was applied to the Burgess Shale (Cambrian Series 3, Stage 5) type material and to new material from the Trilobite Beds (Yoho National Park) and specimens from the Cambrian of Utah. On the basis of fine-scale details observed using this approach, including banding structure interpreted as fusellae, Yuknessia Walcott, 1919 is transferred from the algae, where it resided for nearly a century, to the extant taxon Pterobranchia (Phylum Hemichordata). Considered as such, Yuknessia specimens from the Trilobite Beds and Spence Formation (Utah) are amongst the oldest known colonial pterobranchs. Two morphs regarded herein as two different species are recognized from the Trilobite Beds based on tubarium morphology. Yuknessia simplex has slender erect tubes whereas Yuknessia stephenensis n. sp., which is also known in Utah, has more robust erect tubes. The two paratypes of Y. simplex designated by Walcott (1919) are formally removed from Yuknessia and are reinterpreted respectively as an indeterminate alga and Dalyia racemata Walcott, 1919, a putative red alga.

New eocrinoids from the Burgess Shale, southern British Columbia, Canada, and the Spence Shale, northern Utah, USA

2006 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Sprinkle ◽  
Desmond Collins
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Suspension Feeding ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Middle Cambrian ◽  
The Family ◽  
Northern Utah

The family Lyracystidae n.fam. and genus Lyracystis n.gen. are proposed for the holotype and one paratype of the Middle Cambrian eocrinoid Gogia? radiata Sprinkle, the Burgess Shale "Arms" from the same unit, and many additional partial and more complete specimens of this eocrinoid collected from the Burgess Shale since 1975. A second species, Lyracystis reesei n.gen. and n.sp. is described from a single partly complete specimen from the similar-aged Spence Shale of northern Utah. Lyracystis has three wide V-shaped arms bearing numerous long straight brachioles in the notch, a partly organized theca having larger and smaller ridged plates with epispires, and a very long multiplated stalk made up of rounded or spiny small plates. Lyracystis is the longest-stalked, suspension-feeding echinoderm known from the Middle Cambrian. The three remaining paratypes of Gogia? radiata and four new specimens with possible branched brachioles from the Burgess Shale are renamed Gogia stephenensis n.sp.

scholarly journals The Burgess Shale paleocommunity with new insights from Marble Canyon, British Columbia

Paleobiology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karma Nanglu ◽  
Jean-Bernard Caron ◽  
Robert R. Gaines
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
National Park ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Species Level ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Ecological Groups ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
Temporal Scales ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Exceptional Preservation

AbstractThe middle (Wuliuan Stage) Cambrian Burgess Shale is famous for its exceptional preservation of diverse and abundant soft-bodied animals through the “thick” Stephen Formation. However, with the exception of the Walcott Quarry (Fossil Ridge) and the stratigraphically older Tulip Beds (Mount Stephen), which are both in Yoho National Park (British Columbia), quantitative assessments of the Burgess Shale have remained limited. Here we first provide a detailed quantitative overview of the diversity and structure of the Marble Canyon Burgess Shale locality based on 16,438 specimens. Located 40 km southeast of the Walcott Quarry in Kootenay National Park (British Columbia), Marble Canyon represents the youngest site of the “thick” Stephen Formation. We then combine paleoecological data sets from Marble Canyon, Walcott Quarry, Tulip Beds, and Raymond Quarry, which lies approximately 20 m directly above the Walcott Quarry, to yield a combined species abundance data set of 77,179 specimens encompassing 234 species-level taxa. Marble Canyon shows significant temporal changes in both taxonomic and ecological groups, suggesting periods of stasis followed by rapid turnover patterns at local and short temporal scales. At wider geographic and temporal scales, the different Burgess Shale sites occupy distinct areas in multivariate space. Overall, this suggests that the Burgess Shale paleocommunity is far patchier than previously thought and varies at both local and regional scales through the “thick” Stephen Formation. This underscores that our understanding of Cambrian diversity and ecological networks, particularly in early animal ecosystems, remains limited and highly dependent on new discoveries.

scholarly journals Chimpanzee pant-hoots encode information about individual but not group differences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nisarg P. Desai ◽  
Pawel Fedurek ◽  
Katie E. Slocombe ◽  
Michael L. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Regional Variation ◽  
National Park ◽  
Nonhuman Primates ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Gombe National Park ◽  
Pant Hoot ◽  
Community Variation ◽  
Acoustic Variation

AbstractVocal learning, the ability to voluntarily modify the acoustic structure of vocalizations based on social cues, is a fundamental feature of speech in humans (Homo sapiens). While vocal learning is common in taxa such as songbirds and whales, the vocal learning capacities of nonhuman primates appear more limited. Intriguingly, evidence for vocal learning has been reported in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), for example in the form of regional variation (‘dialects’) in the ‘pant-hoot’ calls. This suggests that some capacity for vocal learning may be an ancient feature of the Pan-Homo clade. Nonetheless, reported differences have been subtle, with inter-community variation representing only a small portion of the total acoustic variation. To gain further insights into the extent of regional variation in chimpanzee vocalizations, we performed an analysis of pant-hoots from chimpanzees in the neighboring Kasekela and Mitumba communities at Gombe National Park, Tanzania, and the geographically distant Kanyawara community at Kibale National Park, Uganda. We observed group differences only among the geographically isolated communities and did not find any differences between the neighboring communities at Gombe. Furthermore, we found differences among individuals in all communities. Hence, the variation in chimpanzee pant-hoots reflected individual differences, rather than group differences. The limited evidences for vocal learning in Pan suggest that extensive vocal learning emerged in the human lineage after the divergence from Pan.

scholarly journals A review of dinosaurian body fossils from British Columbia, Canada

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain J Reid
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
British Columbia ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Burgess Shale ◽  
History Of ◽  
Prairie Provinces

Since the 1900s, dinosaur fossils have been discovered from Jurassic to Cretaceous age strata, from all across the prairie provinces of Canada and the Western United States, yet little material is known from the outer provinces and territories. In British Columbia, fossils have long been uncovered from the prevalent mid-Cambrian Burgess Shale, but few deposits date from the Mesozoic, and few of these are dinosaurian. The purpose of this paper is to review the history of dinosaurian body fossils in British Columbia. The following dinosaurian groups are represented: coelurosaurians, thescelosaurids, iguanodontians, ankylosaurs and hadrosaurs.

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