ABSTRACT VOLUME INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE — ON THE — CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION WALCOTT 2009 — EDITORS — MARTIN R. SMITH LORNA J. O’BRIEN JEAN-BERNARD CARON © 2009 – The Burgess Shale Consortium All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or data base, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher. First published in 2009 by the Burgess Shale Consortium, 100 Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario M5S2C6, CANADA Publication date: July 31st, 2009 ISBN 978-0-9812885-1-2 National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication International conference on the Cambrian explosion (ICCE, Aug 3-8th 2009: Banff, Alberta, Canada) International Conference on the Cambrian Explosion – Abstract Volume; Martin Smith, Lorna O’Brien and Jean-Bernard Caron, Editors. Printed and bound in Canada by Alicos Digital Copy Centre Cover design: Grace Cheong Image credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives (Walcott standing in the Phyllopod Bed Quarry, 1911, cover) WALCOTT 2009 | 3 FOREWORD Welcome to the International Conference on the Cambrian Explosion, 2009. This special meeting commemorates the centenary of the discovery of the Burgess Shale by Charles D. Walcott. We are delighted to welcome a broad spectrum of over 135 Cambrian Explosion workers from across the globe, attending this conference to exchange ideas on current research and to visit the famous localities, part of the Canadian Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. This abstract volume is a compilation of the abstracts for keynote, oral and poster presentations. The suite of abstracts received is a testament to the quality and diversity of current research in this field, one hundred years after the discovery of the first Burgess Shale animals. Presentations topics range from the Neoproterozoic to the Cambro- Ordovician and cover geochemistry to taphonomy, ichnology to phylogeny, and the history of Burgess Shale research to discoveries of new Burgess Shale-type fossils across the globe. New and exciting interpretations of famous (and infamous) Cambrian animals are proposed. We would like to extend our thanks to all of our contributors, and trust that the presentations will stimulate interesting and profitable conversation. We are excited to host eight keynote addresses by many of the largest names in Cambrian palaeontology, and trust that these will fascinate delegates and members of the public alike. We would like to express our appreciation to all of our sponsors for their kind financial assistance, in particular; Parks Canada; the Canadian National Committee for the International Year of Planet Earth; Devon Energy; the Paleontological Society; the Palaeontological Association; the Paleontology Division of the Geological Association of Canada; the Polk Family Charitable Fund; and the Fritz Fund. The commemoration events are under the patronage of the International Palaeontological Association and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. We hope your time here in Banff is both memorable and enjoyable! Martin Smith, Lorna O’Brien & Jean-Bernard Caron Abstract Volume, Editors 4 | INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION CONTENTS Foreword ..................................................................................................................................................................3 Conference schedule ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Abstracts (arranged alphabetically by first author): Keynote presentations ....................................................................................................................... 11 Oral presentations .............................................................................................................................. 19 Poster presentations ......................................................................................................................... 63 List of delegates and contact details ...................................................................................................... 101 Index of contributors .................................................................................................................................... 108 Map of conference centre ............................................................................................................................ 111 WALCOTT 2009 | 5 SCHEDULE PDC: Professional Development Centre; MB: Max Bell building; WBB: Wally Burden building MONDAY AUGUST 3RD 06:00 Collect lunch and breakfast bags – PDC main lobby lounge 06:30 Field trips depart – front of PDC 19:00 (approx) - Trilobite beds hike returns to Banff Centre 19:30 (until 22:00) Icebreaker and registration – Whyte Museum 20:00 (approx) - Walcott Quarry hike returns to Banff Centre TUESDAY AUGUST 4TH 07:00 Breakfast –WBB dining room 08:00 Install posters – MB 252 Introduction / Welcome 08:30 Jean-Bernard Caron Session Chair: Mr. David Rudkin The Discovery of the Burgess Shale Site on Fossil Ridge, British Columbia 08:40 Desmond Collins Walcott’s Insights on Lower Cambrian Biostratigraphy: Stratigraphy and 09:00 Palaeontology of the Esmeralda Basin, Nevada and California J. Stewart Hollingsworth, Norman S. Brown & William H. Fritz The Cambridge–Geological Survey of Canada Excavation of the Walcott 09:20 Quarry in 1967 David L. Bruton What Counts as a Phylum? Systematics, Evolution, and the Burgess Shale 09:40 Keynyn Brysse 10:00 Coffee and posters – MB central foyer / MB 252 Session Chair: Dr. Douglas Erwin Multiple Lines of Chemical Evidence for Pelagic Neoproterozoic Acritarchs 10:30 Alison Olcott Marshall, Craig P. Marshall, Malgorzata Moczydlowska & Sebastian Willman Where’s the Glass? Biomarkers, Molecular Clocks and MicroRNAs Suggest a 10:50 Near 200-Million-Year Missing Precambrian Fossil Record of Demosponges Erik A. Sperling, Davide Pisani & Kevin J. Peterson 6 | INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION Doushantuo Formation Microfossils (~600 Ma): Giant Sulfur Bacteria, 11:10 Embryos, or Both? Frank A. Corsetti & Jake V. Bailey Reconstructing a Lost World: Exceptional Preservation of Ediacaran Rangeomorphs from Spaniard’s Bay, Newfoundland 11:30 Guy M. Narbonne, Marc Laflamme, Lija I. Flude, Carolyn Greentree & Peter Trusler Attachment Adaptations of Ediacaran Sedentary Organisms 11:50 Ekaterina A. Serezhnikova Trends and Transitions in Early Animal Evolution: Towards a Palaeogenomic 12:10 Synthesis David J. Bottjer 12:30 Lunch – WBB dining room Keynote address: Walcott, Trilobites, and the Cambrian Radiation 13:30 Nigel C. Hughes Session Chairs: Dr. Jean Vannier and Dr. Maoyan Zhu Evolutionary Relationships Within the Avalonian Ediacara Biota: New 14:30 Insights from Laser Analysis Martin D. Brasier & Jonathan B. Antcliffe 14:50 Coffee and posters – MB central foyer / MB 252 Possible Ediacaran Ancestry of the Halkieriids 15:30 Jerzy Dzik Taphomorphs Within the Ediacaran Biota of Avalonia: an Explanation of 15:50 Ivesheadia and Related Forms Alexander G. Liu†, Duncan McIlroy, Jonathan B. Antcliffe & Martin D. Brasier Priapulid Origin of Treptichnids: Evidence from Experimental Ichnology 16:10 Jean Vannier, Ivan Calandra, Christian Gaillard & Anna Żylińska Ichnofaunal Variability in an Early Cambrian Sand-Rich Shallow-Marine 16:30 Complex: The Gog Group of the Southern Canadian Rocky Mountains Patricio R. Desjardins†, M. Gabriela Mángano, Luis A. Buatois & Brian R. Pratt Evolutionary and Environmental Controls on Ediacaran–Cambrian 16:50 Ichnofaunas Luis A. Buatois & Gabriela Mángano Episodic Bio-Radiations and Extinctions During the Precambrian-Cambrian 17:10 Transition: Insight from South China Maoyan Zhu Keynote address: When Life got Big: the Ediacara Biota and the Origin of 17:30 Animals Guy M. Narbonne 18:30 Dinner – WBB dining room Special talk: The Panorama Photographs of Charles D. Walcott 20:00 Sarah Staurderman – Whyte Museum 21:00 Close WALCOTT 2009 | 7 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5TH 07:00 Breakfast – WBB dining room Session Chair: Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron The Sirius Passet Lagerstätte (Early Cambrian) of North Greenland 08:20 John S. Peel & Jon R. Ineson The Emu Bay Shale Revisited: New Discoveries From a Lower Cambrian Lagerstätte in South Australia 08:40 John R. Paterson†, Gregory D. Edgecombe, Diego C. García-Bellido, James G. Gehling, James B. Jago & Michael S. Y. Lee The Preservation of the Cambrian Murero Biota in the Mesones Group, Cadenas Ibéricas, Spain 09:00 José Antonio Gámez Vintaned, Eladio Liñán, Andrey Yu. Zhuravlev, Blanca Bauluz, Rodolfo Gozalo, Samuel Zamora & Jorge Esteve Raman Imaging of Early and Middle Cambrian Soft-Bodied Arthropods from 09:20 the Pioche Shale, Nevada, USA Craig P. Marshall, Alison N. Olcott Marshall & Bruce S. Lieberman A New Fossil Lagerstätte from the Stephen Formation, Kootenay National Park, British Columbia: Broadening the Search for Burgess Shale-Type 09:40 Deposits in the Canadian Rockies Jean-Bernard Caron, Robert R. Gaines, Gabriela Mángano & Michael Streng 10:00 Coffee and posters – MB central foyer / MB 252 Session Chair: Dr. Douglas Erwin A Phylogenetic Tree Assembled from rRNA Sequences of Almost 200 Taxa 10:30 from Across the Metazoan Animals Jon M. Mallatt, Catherine W. Craig & Matthew J. Yoder MicroRNAs Resolve an Apparent Conflict Between Annelid Systematics and 10:50 their Fossil Record Erik A. Sperling, Jakob Vinther, Benjamin M. Wheeler, Derek E. G. Briggs