Fossils are rare, but Lagerstätten are rarer. Lagerstätten are fossil deposits formed under highly unusual circumstances such that soft tissues such as skin, wings, jellyfish and insects are preserved.

Wesleyan has the honour to be one of the only institutions in the world that has a collection of Burgess Shale fossils. Hailing from the Canadian Rockies, the Burgess has attained near mythical status in the world of paleontology. The alien-like remarkably preserved soft-bodied organisms from the early days of animal life on Earth in the Middle Cambrian were propelled to posterity by none other than the formidable Stephen J. Gould.

Through the collecting efforts of the last curator of the Wesleyan Museum in Judd Hall, Samuel Ward Loper, with the US Geological Survey, we also play host to exceptional fish fossils from Jurassic deposits in the Connecticut River Valley and the Eocene of Green River, Wyoming.