Describing the fossils is a vast task, pursued by Walcott until his death in 1927, and continued into the 21st century. Walcott, led by scientific opinion at the time, attempted to categorise all fossils into living taxa. As a result, the fossils were regarded as little more than curiosities at the time. It was not until 1962 that a first-hand reinvestigation of the fossils was attempted, by Alberto Simonetta. This led scientists to recognise that Walcott had barely scratched the surface of information available in the Burgess Shale.