Fossil formation containing remarkably detailed traces of soft-bodied marine organisms of the middle of the Cambrian Epoch (520–512 million years ago).
Collected from a fossil bed in the Burgess Pass of the Canadian Rockies, the Burgess Shale is one of the best preserved and most important fossil formations in the world. Since it was discovered in 1909, over 60,000 specimens have been retrieved from the bed.