Half‐a‐billion‐year‐old microscopic treasures—the Cambrian ‘Orsten’ fossils of Sweden

The creatures that gaze back at us through the binocular microscope are so uniquely well‐preserved and life‐like that had we not known better we would have thought that they were modern. Instead they are half‐a‐billion‐year‐old arthropods extracted from Cambrian rocks of Sweden. The microscopic fossils, colloquially known as the ‘Orsten’ fossils, are now world‐famous and basking in the light of the research catwalk since their discovery in the 1970s. These fossils have provided significant insight into the long lost Cambrian biotas and early animal evolution.