Burgess Shale Fauna - Animated Reconstructions

Burgess Shale Fauna
Animated Reconstructions

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Anomalocaris canadensis

Cambrian, Length 60cm+
Loop QuickTime Movie (360kb)
Direct link: QTMovie mpeg1 (230kb)

Hand coded, and rendered with POV-Ray3.5. Wavy motion by simple oscillation model using trigonometric functions. Each fin bends. This model is made up with sequences of cones and spheres.

Opabinia regalis
Cambrian, Length 4-7cm
Loop QuickTime Movie (343kb)
Direct link: QTMovie mpeg1 (235kb)

Hand coded, and rendered with POV-Ray3.1g. Wavy motion model using trigonometric functions. This model is made up with sequenced spheres.

Anomalocarid II
Loop QuickTime Movie (400kb)
Direct link: QTMovie mpeg1 (225kb)

Hand coded, and rendered with POV-Ray3.5. Laggania cambria type wavy motion model by using trigonometric functions. Each fin bends.

Anomalocarid I
Direct link:

Made with 3D polygon modeler Lily Eight 1.8.8. A part of a sample animation for Japanese TV program.

Marrella splendens "Lace Crab"
Cambrian, Length 2cm
Freedom VR (214kb)

Rendered with POV-Ray3.1.

Reference

"Seimei 40 okunen harukana tabi" NHK Shuppan. 1994
Briggs, D.E.G. (1994) Giant predators from the Cambrian of China. Science, 264:1283-1284.
Briggs, D.E.G., Erwin, D.H. and Collier, F.J. "The Fossils of the Burgess Shale." Smithsonian Institution Press. 1994
Budd, G. E. (1996) The Morphology of Opabinia Regalis and the Reconstruction of the Arthropod Stem-Group. Lethaia, 29:1-14.
Chen, J-Y., Ramskold, L. and Zhou, G-O. (1994) Evidence for monophyly and arthropod affinity of Cambrian giant predators. Science, 264:1304-1308.
Collins, D. (1996) The “evolution” of Anomalocaris and its classification in the arthropod class Dinocarida (nov.) and order Radiodonta (nov.). Journal of Paleontology, 70(2):280-293.
Conway Morris, S. "The Crucible of Creation. The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals" Oxford University Press. 1998
Coppold, M and Powell, W. "A Geoscience Guide to The Burgess Shale." The Yoho-Burgess Shale Foundation. 2000
Gould, S. J. "Wonderful Life. The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History." W.W.Norton & Co. 1989

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