The Stanley Glacier locality in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

is an exposure of the "thin"

Stephen formation The Stephen Formation is a geologic formation exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia and Alberta, on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It consists of shale, thin-bedded limestone, and siltstone that was deposit ...

exhibiting soft-tissue preservation. Fossils were discovered by a hiker who reported the find to

Parks Canada Parks Canada ()Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 37 National Parks, three National Marine Co ...

; this brought the site to the attention of scientists who were able to study the site and describe the new biota. The discovery of

Burgess Shale-type preservation The Burgess Shale of British Columbia is famous for its exceptional preservation of mid-Cambrian organisms. Around 69 other sites have been discovered of a similar age, with soft tissues preserved in a similar, though not identical, fashion. Additi ...

in the thin Stephen was unexpected, given the absence of the

Cathedral escarpment The Cathedral Formation is a stratigraphic unit in the southern Canadian Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia, on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It is a thick sequence of carbonate rocks of Middle Cambrian age. It ...

in the area. Several new species, including ''

Stanleycaris ''Stanleycaris'' ("Stanley's shrimp") is an extinct genus of hurdiid radiodont from the Cambrian (Stage 3 to Miaolingian). The type species is ''Stanleycaris hirpex''. ''Stanleycaris'' was described from the Stephen Formation near the Stanley Gl ...

'', have already been found in exploratory excavations at the site.

References

Glaciers of British Columbia {{BritishColumbiaInterior-geo-stub