Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850 - February 9, 1927) was an eminent American invertebrate paleontologist. He has become well-known for his discovery in 1909 of well-preserved fossils in the Burgess shale formation of British Columbia, Canada. In this shale, many very rare, soft-bodied animal fossils have been collected, many by Walcott himself. March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap years), with 275 days remaining, as the final day of March. ... 1850 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Invertebrate is a term coined by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck to describe any animal without a spinal column. ... A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ... A fossil Ammonite Fossils are the mineralized remains of animals or plants or other traces such as footprints. ... The Burgess shale (named after Mount Burgess, near where the shale was found) is a black shale found high up in the Canadian Rockies in Yoho National Park near the town of Field, British Columbia. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Splendour without diminishment) Other Canadian provinces and territories Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Area 944,735 km² (5th) Land 925,186 km² Water 19,549 km² (2. ...

In the year following the discovery of 1909, Walcott returned to the area accompanied by his sons Stuart and Sidney. Together they examined all the layers on the ridge above the point where the fossil laden rock had been found, eventually finding the fossiliferous band. Between 1910 and 1924, Walcott returned repeatedly to collect more than 65,000 specimens from what is now known as the Walcott quarry, named after him.

Walcott joined US Geological Survey in 1879 and rose to become its director in 1894. He worked especially on the Cambrian, making numerous field trips and linking the fossils he collected to the sequence of rocks in a way that made important contributions to stratigraphy. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is a scientific agency of the United States government. ... The Cambrian is a major division of the geologic timescale that begins about 542 million years before the present (BP) at the end of the Proterozoic eon and ended about 490 million years BP with the beginning of the Ordovician period. ... A fossil Ammonite Fossils are the mineralized remains of animals or plants or other traces such as footprints. ... Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, is basically the study of rock layers and layering (stratification). ...

He became Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1907 after the death of Samuel Pierpont Langley, holding the latter post until his own death. While he held this position, Walcott became one of the most powerful figures in the American scientific community. He was suceeded by Charles Greeley Abbott. The Smithsonian Institution Building or Castle on the National Mall serves as the Institutions headquarters. ... Samuel Pierpont Langley (August 22, 1834 in Roxbury, Massachusetts near Boston, – February 27, 1906, Aiken, South Carolina) was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor and pioneer of aviation. ...

In 1914 Walcott married Mary Morris Vaux, an amateur artist and avid naturalist. Mary Walcott (July 31, 1860 - August 22, 1940) was an artist and naturalist known for her watercolor paintings of wildflowers. ...

Although Walcott spent a considerable amount of time at the Burgess Shale quarry on what became known as Fossil Ridge, he also travelled widely in other areas of the Canadian Rockies. Some of his numerous scientific publications feature spectacular panoramic photographs of the mountains taken from high passes or high on mountain slopes. After his death in 1927, Walcott’s samples, photographs, and notes remained in storage until a new generation of palaeontologists became interested in them in the late 1960’s. Many of his interpretations have been subsequently revised. Rocky Mountain National Park (photo courtesy of NPS) View of Colorado Rockies. ...

Walcott would be little known today if he had not been brought to attention by Stephen Jay Gould's book Wonderful Life (1989). In this book, Gould put forth his opinion that Walcott failed to see the differences among the Burgess Shale species and "shoehorned" most of these fossils into existing phyla. Many paleontologists would now take a much less negative view of Walcott's descriptions and of the theoretical perspective that shaped them. Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was a New York-born American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. ... Wonderful Life is a book on evolution by Stephen Jay Gould. ...

A peak on Mount Burgess in Canada was named after him.

External links

• Charles Doolittle Walcott - Mystery at Pioche, Nevada
• Walcott Peak