BC'S FOSSIL BOUNTY: BEHIND THE SCENES WITH JOHN FAM

Meet John Fam, Vice Chair of the Vancouver Paleontological Society. 

The awesome folk in the Vancouver Paleontological Society and Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society have been collecting with John for many years, some exciting local trips — and some epic trips of a lifetime. 

Visiting the fossil outcrops at Tyaughton in the Taseko Lakes area of British Columbia takes months of planning. Remote, dangerous and difficult to reach, these sites are epic and each of those field trips definitely count as trips of a lifetime.

John shares Tales of Tyaughton in his episode of BC's Fossil Bounty.

"For the longest time, a handful of BCPA members have known about the wonderful Triassic-Jurassic fossils of the Tyaughton Creek area. Some of us had been even fortunate to see the spectacular collection of Jurassic ammonites stored in the basement of the Geological Survey of Canada.

I still remember purchasing a copy of Hettangian Ammonoid Faunas of the Taseko Lakes Area by Hans Frebold and wondering if I would even get a chance to visit such a remote locality. If you picture a squid living inside a sea shell floating and hunting in the ocean, these were the ancient creatures we’d be looking for.

As Karen Lund, one of the Directors of the Vancouver Paleontological Society (VanPS), told me, "Tyaughton is kind of like the Eldorado for the VanPS.”

We had heard so many stories that this site was becoming somewhat legendary in our minds. Thus, I made it a personal goal of mine to visit the remote fossil beds.

I began researching all possible sources related to Tyaughton Creek. I dug up many old GSC reports by Hans Frebold, Howard Tipper and George Jeletzky along with more recent material by Paul-Smith and his grad students.

All this literature was very helpful in understanding not only the fossil localities but also the complex geology of the region. I also paid a couple of visits to Dr. Howard Tipper of Geological Survey of Canada. 

Dr. Tipper was very supportive and helpful in providing valuable information regarding the fossil sites. He also shared with me his extensive knowledge of Jurassic palaeontology.

Armed with this information, I met up with Heidi Henderson, then Chair of the Vancouver Palaeontological Society, who you’ll know as the Fossil Huntress, to plan the first of four expeditions.

We had to figure out how to access such a rugged and remote locality. The fossil beds are 16 km from the nearest logging road, several hundred kilometres from Vancouver and 7,500 feet above sea level.

We would be sharing territory with a healthy Grizzly bear population and likely be a food source for the not as large but equally daunting horsefly population. 

We were keen to access this elusive site, but hiking in 16 km and gaining about a thousand feet or more of elevation would be a challenge. Hiking back out with 50 kg of rock would be impossible. 

We finally decided that it would be best that we fly in by helicopter. That, too, provided its own challenges. In the end, we did four trips over many field seasons. 

We met many Grizzly bears, horseflies, we were snowed in but came away with many wonderful fossils including new species. The undergrad we brought on the first trip did her PhD over that time and now teaches at the University of British Columbia."

Here's John Fam Behind the Scene prepping for that episode and Eva Svobodova doing her magic with Hair and Makeup on the set at Shoreline Studios in Vancouver.