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Desmond Collins

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Desmond Collins is a Canadian paleontologist who formerly served as a curator of invertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum. He is specifically recognized for his extensive fieldwork in the Canadian Rockies, where he successfully discovered several new Burgess Shale fossil outcrops. These discoveries expanded the known geographic range of the famous Cambrian fossil deposits. Collins's research primarily focuses on Cambrian arthropods and the morphology of extinct soft-bodied marine organisms.

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What did Desmond Collins do at the Burgess Shale?

As a former Royal Ontario Museum curator of invertebrate paleontology, Collins led the first 18 ROM field expeditions between 1975 and 2000. Those expeditions greatly expanded Canada's collections of Cambrian fossils. [Royal Ontario Museum](https://www.rom.on.ca/collections-researches/rom-research/burgess-shale-projects)

What happened on the 1975 ROM Burgess Shale expedition?

Parks Canada did not allow excavation, so the nine-person ROM team collected loose talus below the Walcott and Raymond quarries. In eight weeks, the team collected more than 8,000 fossils, including many Marrella splendens specimens. [Burgess Shale](https://burgess-shale.rom.on.ca/history/discoveries/)

Which Burgess Shale fossils are associated with Collins's work?

The 1975 team found a new fossil later named Priscansermarinus barnetti and collected important specimens of Marrella splendens and Branchiocaris pretiosa. The ROM's Burgess Shale work under Collins also helped build the museum's collection of more than 150,000 specimens. [Burgess Shale](https://burgess-shale.rom.on.ca/history/discoveries/)

Did Desmond Collins discover the Burgess Shale?

No. Charles Walcott discovered the Burgess Shale in 1909, while Collins began leading ROM expeditions decades later in 1975. Collins's role was expanding field collections and research rather than making the original discovery. [Royal Ontario Museum](https://www.rom.on.ca/collections-researches/rom-research/burgess-shale-projects)

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