BURGESS SHALE. Yoho National Park. Burgess Shale was placed on the World Heritage List at the 1980 meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee as a site of outstanding universla value forming part of the national heritage of mankind. Dating from the middle Cambrian time, more than 500 million years ago, it is one of the world's most significant fossil sites. It has yielded more than 150 species of some 120 genera. The remarkably preserved soft-bodied marine animals, unique to Burgess Shale, are a major importance to evolutionary biology.
