Vauxia gracilenta. Illustration of Vauxia gracilenta, a soft-bodied sponge-like animal known from fossils in the Burgess Shale site (508 million years

---

Vauxia gracilenta. Illustration of Vauxia gracilenta, a soft-bodied sponge-like animal known from fossils in the Burgess Shale site (508 million years old) in British Columbia, Canada. The Burgess Shale fossil site records a key moment in Earth's history, the Cambrian Explosion, when an unprecedented period of evolution produced a wide diversity of body types, including those of today's animals.

---

Size: 2480px × 3543px
Photo credit: © JOHN SIBBICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, 1, animal, artwork, background, biological, biology, cambrian, evolution, evolutionary, explosion, extinct, fauna, fossil, gracilenta, historical, history, illustration, invertebrate, marine, middle, natural, nature, ocean, palaeobiological, palaeobiology, palaeontological, palaeontology, palaeozoological, palaeozoology, paleobiological, paleobiology, paleontological, paleontology, paleozoological, paleozoology, prehistoric, prehistory, record, sea, single, sponge, underwater, vauxia, water, white, wildlife, zoological, zoology