But possibly the most important lesson that we learn from the Burgess shale is that there are a bunch of creatures whose fossils are found in the Burgess shale but who have no descendants today on the Earth. Again, here is Opabinia.

http://nmnhgoph.si.edu/paleo/shale/

http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookPaleo3.html

Opabinia has no descendants surviving on Earth today. If it did ...

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