While exploring the Canadian Rockies, Charles Doolittle Walcott discovered the Burgess Shale, a fossil deposit of extraordinary preservation from the Middle Cambrian period. The site contained exquisitely preserved soft-bodied organisms, including many bizarre and previously unknown creatures. The Burgess Shale provided a unique and invaluable window into the 'Cambrian Explosion,' a period of rapid evolutionary diversification of animal life.

The Burgess Shale's array of strange creatures, such as Opabinia and Anomalocaris, challenged conventional ideas about the early history of life and fired the imaginations of scientists and writers. The site's 'alien' fauna has inspired poets and artists to contemplate the radical otherness of the distant past and the contingency of evolution. The discovery of this ancient 'Cambrian Garden' has contributed to a more complex, humbling, and awe-inspiring view of the history of life on Earth.