The fossils found at the rolling hills of Chengjiang in the Yunnan Province of China are the second oldest fossils found in the world. Only beat by the Ediacaran faunas in Australia, which date to about 580 million years old, the Chengjiang fossils come in at a distant second at 525 million years old, much closer in age to the world famous Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada, which is about 505 million years old.

The faunas of Chengjiang are just as varied as it’s two sister faunas, but the assortment is still slightly different. More evolved predators, more varied early trilomorph species, two prominent worm species, many early arthropods, as well as many genus that did not survive the Cambrian Explosion. The Chengjiang fauna only became famous for it’s finds when in 1984 an early trilobite-like specimen was found, which fueled a lot of international and scientific attention.

These are specimens from my own collection. Some have been described… others are still unknown to the scientific community or are still awaiting proper categorizing.