Press

ALBANY, N.Y. - "Burgess Shale: Evolution's Big Bang," a new traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), will open at the New York State Museum on December 18 and continue on through March 12, 2003.

The exhibition uses fossils, lifelike models, scientific illustrations and interactives to highlight events of this evolutionary transformation of life. It is complemented by exhibits organized by State Museum staff that explain how exceptionally preserved fossils are formed, as well as their particular significance in reconstructing ancient life history. A broad perspective on fossils and earth's "deep time" is provided by the museum's "Ancient Life in New York" exhibition, which forms the entry to the "Burgess Shale" exhibition.

Ranked as one of the 20th century's most significant paleontological discoveries, the fossils of the Burgess Shale, in the Canadian Rockies, were discovered in 1909 by Charles Walcott, then secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Prior to that time, Walcott worked in Albany at the Cabinet of Natural History, which became the New York State Museum. He served as the assistant to James Hall, the New York State paleontologist. He worked in Albany
from 1876 to 1878 and collected fossils from Quebec, Brazil, the Falklands, Morocco and elsewhere for comparison with New York's fossils. The fossils he collected are the most frequently loaned and studied materials of the State Museum's paleontology collections.
The fossils of the Burgess Shale provide researchers with the most complete record of life at the end of the so-called "Cambrian Explosion" a biological "big bang," which began 580 million years ago.

Among the astonishing diversity of creatures discovered was Anomalcaris, a gigantic beast for its time, at 3 feet long, which roamed the seas, preying on smaller creatures more than 500 million years ago. Also found was Pikaia, a slightly flattened worm, which displays a fundamentally important feature - a dorsal nerve cord. This means that it is the oldest known chordate and the earliest known ancestor of vertebrates, from fish to humans.

The exhibition explores current theories about the "Cambrian Explosion," a burst of evolutionary activity 550 million to 530 million years ago, which generated a sudden increase in the complexity and variety of animal life. Also presented are highlights from the story of early life on Earth. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of the extraordinary creatures found in the Burgess Shale combine with the tales and methods of the paleontologists who have studied these fossils to engage the audience in an ever-changing adventure.

Visitors will learn that many of the fossil faunas found in the Burgess Shale are among the earliest representations of virtually all modern, multi-cellular animals. Others appear unrelated to any living forms and their later disappearance presents an intriguing mystery to paleontologists.

Exhibits organized by museum staff are targeted at school groups and natural history enthusiasts. They will be able to see the youngest and oldest perfectly preserved fossils in the museum's collections, exceptional fossils from sites across New York and as far away as Germany and Lebanon. This includes 49 million-year-old bat, bird, frog and fish fossils on loan from the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History in Frankfurt. The exhibits also explore the relationship of exceptional fossils to Middle Eastern oil deposits.

Topics relating to evolution will be further explored through lectures in the upcoming installment of the continuing Museum Series - "Evolution is Good Science: A Month-Long Celebration of (Charles) Darwin's Birthday." The lectures will be held every Wednesday at 7 p.m. January 29 through February 19 in the Museum Theater at the State Museum.

Further information about the Burgess Shale is available at www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/shale/index.htm1, a section of the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History Web site. The site offers photographs of fossil specimens, artists' reconstructions of primitive animals that lived over half a billion years ago, as well as brief descriptions of the creature's lives, habitats and place in biological history.
"Burgess Shale: Evolution's Big Bang" was developed by SITES and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History's Department of Paleobiology. Douglas H. Erwin, the exhibition curator of the museum, is the co-author of "The Fossils of Burgess Shale." After leaving the State Museum, the exhibition will continue on a four-year tour to 15 institutions.

One of the Smithsonian's four national programs, SITES makes available a wide range of exhibitions about art, science and history which are shown not only in museums but in libraries, science centers, historical societies, community centers, schools etc.. Exhibition descriptions and tour schedules are available at www.sites.si.edu.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877