Fossils are important as they tell us much about what past climates were like.

In 1886 Charles Doolittle Walcott discovered fossil beds in a series of shale layers located between Wapta Mountain and Mount Field, in what is now Yoho Nation Park. Between 1909 to 1924 he collected over 60,000 specimens and shipped them to the Smithsonian Institute of Washington D.C. These fossil beds are known as the Burgess Shale. Today they are a World Heritage Site and are closely guarded.

The fossils of the Burgess Shale were formed around 505 million years ago. This bed is highly important because it records the first appearance of organisms with hard parts in the fossil record.

This photograph was taken July 31, 2005. We are at the Burgess Shale, under the watchful eyes of two National Parks Rangers. It is looking north towards the President Range, with a partial view of Emerald Glacier and Wapta Mountain on the right.