The examples below show some of the biodiversity of complex marine life spanning over 500 million years of Earth's history. From the common gastropods we can still see today to small early arthropods which evolved in to insects, spiders, centipedes, millipedes and crustaceans.
Late Pliocene Gastropod
(5.3 – 2.6 million years ago)
Neptunea contraria
Location: East Anglia, UK
Eocene Gastropod
(56 – 34 million years ago)
Athleta luctator
Location: Barton-on-sea cliffs, Hampshire, UK
Eocene Fish (Perch)
(56 – 34 million years ago)
Priscacara sp.
Location: USA
Eocene Bivalve
(56 – 34 million years ago)
Venericor sp.
Location: Bracklesham Bay, West Sussex, UK
Late Cretaceous Echinoid (Sea Unchin)
(100 – 66 million years ago)
Micraster coranguinum
Location: Greys, Essex, UK
Late Cretaceous Sponge
(100 – 66 million years ago)
Porosphaera sp.
Location: Ventnor, Isle of Wight, UK
Late Jurassic Lobster
(150 – 145 million years ago)
Cancrinos latipes
Location: Solnhofen, Germany
Jurassic Bivalve (Devil's Toenail)
(201 – 145 million years ago)
Gryphaea arcuata
Location: Honeybourne, Gloucestershire, UK
Middle Jurassic Nautilus
(174 – 163 million years ago)
Cenoceras sp.
Location: Bridport Harbour, Dorset, UK
Jurassic Ammonite
(201 – 145 million years ago)
Asteroceras stellare
Location: Charmouth, Dorset, UK
Jurassic Fish (Mackerel)
(201 – 145 million years ago)
Dapedium sp.
Location: Charmouth, Dorset, UK
Jurassic Brachiopod
(201 – 145 million years ago)
Goniorhynchia boueti
Location: Herbury, Fleet, Weymouth, Dorset, UK
Early Jurassic Ammonite
(201 – 174 million years ago)
Dactylioceras tenuiscostatum
Location: Whitby, Yorkshire, UK
Late Silurian Coral
(427 – 419 million years ago)
Stromatopora sp.
Location: Visby, Gotland Island, Sweden
Silurian Trilobite
(443 – 419 million years ago)
Arethusina konincki
Location: Bohemia
Middle Cambrian Trilobite
(521 – 497 million years ago)
Ellipsocephalus Hoffi
Location: Bohemia
Middle Cambrian Arthropod
(521 – 497 million years ago)
Burgess Shale Fossil
Marrella splendens
Location:
Walcott's Quarry, British Columbia, Canada
The Burgess Shale beds were formed over half a billion years ago when a mudslide covered a deep sea ridge in what is now modern Canada. The result was some excellently preserved fossilised sea creatures, which were found in 1909 by American palaeontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott.
They are a very rare find, as the soft body tissues have been preserved as well as the hard body parts. These fossils demonstrate the evolution of complex multi-celled animals at the end of the Pre Cambrian period about 600 million years ago. The diversity of life had begun!