It is always amazing the way genetics and the absolutely central role played by DNA comes into discussions. Last night, I attended a Chautauqua at the Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre. Chautauquas are informal education gatherings of people for educational purposes. Last night, Burgess Shale guide David Moore led us through a very entertaining and informative presentation on “100 Years of Scientific Exploration and Discovery in Yoho National Park”.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Burgess Shale by Charles Doolittle Walcott. The Chautauqua series is part of that celebration being presented by the Burgess Shale Foundation in both Field B.C and Canmore AB. A complete Centennial Booklet is available for download at their website, and more interactive discussion and pictures can be found on Facebook.

David’s presentation walked us (more like ran) through almost the entire story of the earth and life on it in just an hour and a half. He was fascinated by the confluence of important anniversaries this year which also includes the 200th year since Charles Darwin was born, the 150th anniversary since the first publication of Darwin’s theories and the 20th year since the publication of Steven Jay Gould’s book, Wonderful Life, which popularized the Burgess Shale around the time it was made into a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I smiled a bit at the confluence of important dates because not included in this statistical anomaly are all the important dates surrounding Gregor Mendel (1866), the rediscovery of Mendel’s work by de Vries (1900), and of course Watson and Crick’s model of DNA (1953), all of which play such a very important role now in our understanding of the mechanism of evolution. Mutations have always been described as random events.

David did not forget the important input that genetic knowledge has contributed. He gave us the model that tracking predictable genetic mutations was like being able to have a time machine to figure out when the various branches of life separated. He only wishes that it could reach all the way back to the Cambrian explosion or beyond.




For me, one of the most significant points that David brought up was in his discussion of the Marrella. This is one of the most common fossils found in the Burgess Shale, with over 25,000 specimens found so far. Many of these fossils, preserved in an anoxic environment over 500 million years ago contain dark stains exuding out of their bodies. For a long time, these were assumed to be fossilized bodily fluids of the organism. David excitedly told us that the fluids have recently been very carefully examined and they do indeed contain fossilized protein-like material. No DNA found at this point, so he assured us that it will be a while before we have to worry about “Cambrian Park”. No doubt though, this important discovery will lead to much further research in the area of proteins, genetics and evolution.