Question 1

How do you say Pikaia?

Accepted Answer

Pikaia is pronounced pih-KAY-ah. The stress lands on the middle syllable, KAY, so it sounds a bit like saying 'peek' then 'AY' then 'ah' all together. A handy memory trick: think 'peek-A-ha!' like a mini surprise. Once you say it a couple of times it sticks pretty quickly, and you can impress every adult in the room when you drop it correctly.

Question 2

What does Pikaia mean?

Accepted Answer

Pikaia is named after Pika Peak, a mountain in the Canadian Rockies close to the Burgess Shale fossil site in British Columbia where the fossils were found. The species name gracilens comes from Latin and means slender or graceful, describing the animal's ribbon-like body. So the full name Pikaia gracilens essentially means 'the graceful one from Pika Peak.' The mountain is itself named after the pika, a small mammal that lives in rocky mountain habitats.

Question 3

Is Pikaia actually my ancestor?

Accepted Answer

It very possibly is, in the broadest sense. Pikaia is classified as a primitive chordate, the group that includes all animals with a backbone or its precursor, a notochord. That group eventually gave rise to fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, including humans. Pikaia is not a direct ancestor in a straight line, but it is closely related to whatever creature eventually did become the ancestor of all vertebrates. Scientists sometimes call it a 'stem chordate,' meaning it branches off very close to the base of our family tree.

Question 4

How big was Pikaia?

Accepted Answer

Pikaia was tiny by any measure. Fossil specimens suggest it was roughly 4 to 5 centimeters long, about the size of a large earthworm or a stubby pencil eraser extended. It had a flat, ribbon-like body with v-shaped muscle blocks running along its sides. Despite its unimpressive size, the features preserved in those small fossils were enough to reveal that Pikaia sat near the very base of the vertebrate family tree.

Question 5

Where was Pikaia found?

Accepted Answer

All known Pikaia fossils come from the Burgess Shale, a world-famous fossil site in British Columbia, Canada, in the Canadian Rockies. The Burgess Shale is exceptional because it preserves the soft tissues of Cambrian animals in remarkable detail, something most fossil sites cannot do. More than 100 Pikaia specimens have been recovered from this site since Charles Doolittle Walcott first collected them in 1911. The site is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Question 6

When did Pikaia live?

Accepted Answer

Pikaia lived approximately 505 million years ago during the Middle Cambrian period. That was during the time scientists call the Cambrian Explosion, when a huge variety of complex animal body plans appeared in the fossil record in a relatively short span of geological time. To put 505 million years in perspective, the dinosaurs did not appear until around 230 million years ago, meaning Pikaia is more than twice as old as the oldest dinosaurs.

Question 7

Who discovered Pikaia?

Accepted Answer

Pikaia was first discovered and described by the American paleontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1911. Walcott was the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and one of the most important fossil hunters of his era. He initially misidentified Pikaia as a type of bristle worm. It was not until 1979 that Harry B. Whittington and Simon Conway Morris reexamined the specimens and correctly identified Pikaia as a chordate, which completely changed how scientists understood early vertebrate evolution.

Question 8

Why is Pikaia so famous?

Accepted Answer

Pikaia became famous because it was described as 'the most famous early chordate fossil' and for a long time was considered the earliest known ancestor of all vertebrate life, including humans. When paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote his hugely popular 1989 book 'Wonderful Life' about the Burgess Shale, he featured Pikaia as a pivotal creature and argued that if Pikaia had not survived the Cambrian, vertebrates and eventually humans might never have evolved. That dramatic claim made Pikaia a celebrity in the world of paleontology and science communication.

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