Walcott, the Burgess Shale and rumours of a post-Darwinian world Simon Conway Morris  Current Biology  Volume 19, Issue 20, Pages R927-R931 (November 2009) DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.046 Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ltd Terms and Conditions

Figure 1 Burgess bottle. Charles Doolittle Walcott accompanied by some of the Burgess Shale animals. To adorn a beer bottle is fame of a sort, and the contents consumed by the author were brewed in Canada to celebrate the centenary of the discovery. Photo by Dudley Simons, with permission from The Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation. Current Biology 2009 19, R927-R931DOI: (10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.046) Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ltd Terms and Conditions

Figure 2 The earliest known fish are now known to occur in the Lower Cambrian. Here is Myllokunmingia from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte in Yunnan (top), with accompanying camera-lucida drawing (bottom). Photography courtesy of Degan Shu (Early Life Institute, Northwest University, Xi'an). Current Biology 2009 19, R927-R931DOI: (10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.046) Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ltd Terms and Conditions

Figure 3 Making a mark. If Charles Walcott can get onto a beer bottle, other routes to fame include entering the world of philately. Here, Greenland celebrates the discovery of the halkieriids from the Sirius Passet Lagerstätte of Peary Land. With permission from Martin Morck, www.martinmorck.com. Current Biology 2009 19, R927-R931DOI: (10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.046) Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ltd Terms and Conditions

Figure 4 A classic conundrum, a yunnanozoan from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte. (A) Entire specimen, anterior to the left. Note gills and posterior displacement of segments. Scale bar is millimetric. (B) Detail of the anterior. Widely interpreted as a primitive vertebrate this interpretation is difficult to reconcile with the anatomical details, such as cuticular dorsal segments. So another bizarre oddity? Not quite: yunnanozoans are certainly deuterostomes and might be close to both vetulicolians and perhaps the echinoderm-hemichordate assemblage. Photographs courtesy of Degan Shu (Early Life Institute, Northwest University, Xi'an). Current Biology 2009 19, R927-R931DOI: (10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.046) Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ltd Terms and Conditions