Hou Xian–Guang, R.J. Aldridge, J. Bergström, D.J. Siveter, D.J. Siveter & Feng Xiang–Hong. 2004. The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China. – Malden, Blackwell Publishing

Abstract

Most of us work on fossils that have relief – bones, teeth and shells have bumps, ridges, holes, curves or whatever. Such specimens preserve a resemblance to their appearance in life and we are happy to work on them. But consider the two dimensional world of those who devote their time and strain their eyes in blowing ‘life’ back into the flattened denizens of a Cambrian Lagerstätte. Thanks to Stephen Jay Gould and ‘Wonderful Life’ (1989), such deposits, dominated by the pancakes of the world of fossils, are now among the star turns of palaeontology, lit up in lights alongside dinosaurs, hominids and Ice Age mammals. The latest contribution to highlight the importance of such a biota is ‘The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China’, which describes and illustrates an array of weird and wonderful denizens of the Early Cambrian, that is, even older than the Burgess Shale. Read more...