Trilobite Relic

Occurring nearly 541 million years ago, the Cambrian explosion is critical in piecing together prehistoric timelines and tracking evolutionary paths – its discovering marked the first major appearance of fossilized animal phyla. Prior to the Cambrian era, organisms were composed of individual cells and were mostly all very simple. During the explosion, these organisms diversified at an accelerated rate, and the variance of most modern metazoan phyla appeared. Spanning 13 – 25 million years, there are many ‘series’ or event within the Cambrian era, however, none are more famous than the middle Cambrian and the appearance of the Burgess Shale. Found across the Canadian Rockies in Alberta and British Columbia, the Burgess Shale preceded the one of the earliest known fossil beds, mostly containing soft-body imprints in shale. These creatures were not only the evolutionary ancestors of modern phyla, but they were also significantly more distinct in form than modern creatures – most of which had gone extinct after the area, but yield unique and strongly mesmerizing fossils. In addition, the study of the Burgess Shale and the Cambrian Explosion’s climate aided paleoclimatologists in predicting the Earth’s climate change over the course of 500 million years and formed an understanding on its detailed impact to terrestrial life.

The largest deposit, located British Columbia (Mount Burgess and surrounding area in Field, Yoho National Park) is infamous for the finding of these fauna, the most known being trilobites, however, many smaller, soft-bodied creatures are rarely found in comprehensive condition. This pendant showcases one of the most iconic fossilized relics found within these mountain ranges – the trilobite. This glass pendant is created using a custom cut stamp of one of my sketches.

Specs:

Pendant is removable, with stainless steel findings on an 18in leather chord. Pendant is approx. 1 inch in size.

Image photo credits #1 to Vian Esterhuizen and #2 / #3 to Elisha Lozares