FOSSIL FISHAPODS OF CANADA'S FAR NORTH

Qikiqtania wakei, a fishapod & relative to tetrapods

You will likely recall the amazing tetrapodomorpha fossil found on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic in 2004, Tiktaalik roseae. 

These were advanced forms transitional between fish and the early labyrinthodonts playfully referred to as fishapods — half-fish, half-tetrapod in appearance and limb morphology. 

Up to that point, the relationship of limbed vertebrates (tetrapods) to lobe-finned fish (sarcopterygians) was well known, but the origin of significant tetrapod features remained obscure for the lack of fossils that document the sequence of evolutionary changes — until Tiktaalik. 

While Tiktaalik is technically a fish, this fellow is as far from fish-like as you can be and still be a card-carrying member of the group. 

Interestingly, while Neil Shubin and crew were combing the icy tundra for Tiktaalik, another group was trying their luck just a few kilometres away. 

A week before the eureka moment of Tiktaalik's discovery, Tom Stewart and Justin Lemberg unearthed material that we now know to be a relative of Tiktaalik's. 

Meet Qikiqtania wakei, a fishapod and close relative to our dear tetrapods — and cousin to Tiktaalik — who shares features in the flattened triangular skull, shoulders and elbows in the fin. 

Qikiqtania (pronounced kick-kick-TAN-ee-ya)

But, and here’s the amazing part, its upper arm bone (humerus) is specialised for open water swimming, not walking. 

The story gets wilder when we look at Qikiqtania’s position on the evolutionary tree— all the features for this type of swimming are newly evolved, not primitive. 

This means that Qikiqtania secondarily reentered open water habitats from ancestors that had already had some aspect of walking behaviour. 

And, this whole story was playing out 365 million years ago — the transition from water to land was going both ways in the Devonian.

Why is this exciting? You and I descend from those early tetrapods. We share the legacy of their water-to-land transition and the wee bony bits in their wrists and paddles that evolved to become our hands. I know, mindblowing!

Thomas Stewart and Justin Lemberg put in thousands of hours bringing Qikiqtania to life. 

The analysis consisted of a long path of wild events— from a haphazard moment when it was first spotted, a random collection of a block that ended up containing an articulated fin, to a serendipitous discovery three days before Covid lockdowns in March 2020.

Both teams acknowledge the profound debt owed to the individuals, organizations and indigenous communities where they had the privilege to work — Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay— Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. 

Part of that debt is honoured in the name chosen for this new miraculous species. 

Aerial View of Ellesmere Island

The generic name, Qikiqtania (pronounced kick-kick-TAN-ee-ya), is derived from the Inuktitut words Qikiqtaaluk and Qikiqtani which are the traditional place name of the region where the fossil was discovered. 

The specific name, wakei, is in memory of the evolutionary biologist David Wake — colleague, mentor and friend. 

He was a professor of integrative biology and Director and curator of herpetology at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley who passed away in April 2021. 

Wake is known for his work on the biology and evolution of salamanders and vertebrate evolutionary biology. 

If you look at the photo on the left you can imagine visiting these fossil localities in Canada's far north.

Qikiqtania was found on Inuit land and belongs to the community. Thomas Stewart and his colleagues were able to conduct this research because of the generosity and support of individuals in the hamlets of Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord, the Iviq Hunters and Trappers of Grise Fiord, and the Department of Heritage and Culture, Nunavut.

To them, on behalf of the larger scientific community — Nakurmiik. Thank you! 

Here is the link to Tom Stewart's article in The Conversation & paper in Nature that dropped yesterday:

1. Stewart, Thomas A.; Lemberg, Justin B.; Daly, Ailis; Daeschler, Edward B.; Shubin, Neil H. (2022-07-20). "A new elpistostegalian from the Late Devonian of the Canadian Arctic". Nature. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04990-w. ISSN 0028-0836.
2. Stewart, Thomas. "Meet Qikiqtania, a fossil fish with the good sense to stay in the water while others ventured onto land" The Conversation. Retrieved 2022-07-20.

Image One: An artist’s vision of Qikiqtania enjoying its fully aquatic, free-swimming lifestyle. Alex Boersma, CC BY-ND

Image Two: A new elpistostegalian from the Late Devonian of the Canadian Arctic, T. A. Stewart, J. B. Lemberg, A. Daly, E. B. Daeschler, & N. H. Shubin.

A huge shout out to the deeply awesome Neil Shubin who shared that the paper had been published and offered his insights on what played out behind the scenes!

BUMBLEBEES, FOSSILS AND FIRST NATIONS

This fuzzy yellow and black striped fellow is a bumblebee in the genus Bombus sp., family Apidae. We know him from our gardens where we see them busily lapping up nectar and pollen from flowers with their long hairy tongues.

My Norwegian cousins on my mother's side call them humle. Norway is a wonderful place to be something wild as the wild places have not been disturbed by our hands. 

There are an impressive thirty-five species of bumblebee species that call Norway hjem (home), and one, Bombus consobrinus, boasts the longest tongue that they use to feast solely on Monkshood, genus Aconitum, you may know by the name Wolf's-bane.

In the Kwak̓wala language of the Kwakwaka'wakw, speakers of Kwak'wala, and my family in the Pacific Northwest, bumblebees are known as ha̱mdzalat̕si — though I wonder if this is actually the word for a honey bee, Apis mellifera, as ha̱mdzat̕si is the word for a beehive.

I have a special fondness for all bees and look for them both in the garden and in First Nation art.

Bumblebees' habit of rolling around in flowers gives us a sense that these industrious insects are also playful. In First Nation art they provide levity — comic relief along with their cousins the mosquitoes and wasps — as First Nation dancers wear masks made to mimic their round faces, big round eyes and pointy stingers. A bit of artistic license is taken with their forms as each mask may have up to six stingers. The dancers weave amongst the watchful audience and swoop down to playfully give many of the guests a good, albeit gentle, poke. 

Honey bees actually do a little dance when they get back to the nest with news of an exciting new place to forage — truly they do. Bumblebees do not do a wee bee dance when they come home pleased with themselves from a successful foraging mission, but they do rush around excitedly, running to and fro to share their excitement. They are social learners, so this behaviour can signal those heading out to join them as they return to the perfect patch of wildflowers. 

Bumblebees are quite passive and usually sting in defence of their nest or if they feel threatened. Female bumblebees can sting several times and live on afterwards — unlike honeybees who hold back on their single sting as its barbs hook in once used and their exit shears it off, marking their demise.

They are important buzz pollinators both for our food crops and our wildflowers. Their wings beat at 130 times or more per second, literally shaking the pollen off the flowers with their vibration. 

And they truly are busy bees, spending their days fully focused on their work. Bumblebees collect and carry pollen and nectar back to the nest which may be as much as 25% to 75% of their body weight. 

And they are courteous — as they harvest each flower, they mark them with a particular scent to help others in their group know that the nectar is gone. 

The food they bring back to the nest is eaten to keep the hive healthy but is not used to make honey as each new season's queen bees hibernate over the winter and emerge reinvigorated to seek a new hive each Spring. She will choose a new site, primarily underground depending on the bumblebee species, and then set to work building wax cells for each of her fertilised eggs. 

Bumblebees are quite hardy. The plentiful hairs on their bodies are coated in oils that provide them with natural waterproofing. They can also generate more heat than their smaller, slender honey bee cousins, so they remain productive workers in cooler weather.    

We see the first bumblebees arise in the fossil record 100 million years ago and diversify alongside the earliest flowering plants. Their evolution is an entangled dance with the pollen and varied array of flowers that colour our world. 

We have found many wonderful examples within the fossil record, including a rather famous Eocene fossil bee found by a dear friend and naturalist who has left this Earth, Rene Savenye.

His namesake, H. Savenyei, is a lovely fossil halictine bee from Early Eocene deposits near Quilchena, British Columbia — and the first bee body-fossil known from the Okanagan Highlands — and indeed from Canada. 

It is a fitting homage, as bees symbolize honesty, playfulness and willingness to serve the community in our local First Nation lore and around the world — something Rene did his whole life.

KING OF THE TRILOBITES: UNEARTHING ISOTELUS REX

Isotelus rex, the King of Trilobites

In the remote limestone flats of northern Manitoba, a remarkable fossil lay undisturbed for nearly half a billion years. Sunken in gray stone, its broad armored body preserved in exquisite detail, it waited silently—until a team of Canadian paleontologists happened upon it during a summer field expedition in 1999.

What they uncovered would change the story of trilobites forever.

Meet Isotelus rex, the largest complete trilobite ever discovered—a 70-centimetre-long prehistoric titan from the Ordovician seas. It's more than just a big trilobite. It’s a window into an ancient world and a landmark find in Canadian paleontology.

A Fossil Giant in a Forgotten Sea

Trilobites, extinct marine arthropods, are among the most iconic fossils in the world. Their hard, segmented exoskeletons and alien-like eyes make them favorites among collectors and scientists alike. They first appeared more than 520 million years ago and thrived in Earth’s oceans for over 270 million years before vanishing in the Permian extinction.

Many trilobites are palm-sized or smaller. But Isotelus rex was something else entirely.

Discovered near William Lake in the Hudson Bay Lowlands of Manitoba, Isotelus rex was preserved in limestone laid down when central Canada was submerged beneath a warm, shallow sea. That sea teemed with life—brachiopods, nautiloids, sea lilies, and trilobites like Isotelus, which would have cruised the muddy bottom looking for food.

With its broad, paddle-shaped tail, deeply segmented body, and large compound eyes, Isotelus rex was a slow-moving but imposing presence on the seafloor.

The Paleontologists Behind the Discovery

The discovery was made by a team of seasoned Canadian researchers: Dr. David Rudkin of the Royal Ontario Museum, Dr. Graham Young and Edward Dobrzanske of the Manitoba Museum, and Dr. Robert Elias from the University of Manitoba. 

All were participating in a joint field expedition to study the fossil-rich limestone of the Churchill River Group, near Churchill in northern Manitoba.

Dr. Rudkin is one of Canada’s leading experts on Paleozoic arthropods, with a particular passion for trilobites and other ancient sea creatures. 

His work at the Royal Ontario Museum has helped bring the stories of long-extinct animals to life through detailed study and public exhibition.

Dr. Young, curator of geology and paleontology at the Manitoba Museum, specializes in ancient marine ecosystems—piecing together how life functioned and interacted in prehistoric oceans. 

Dr. Elias, a geologist and paleontologist at the University of Manitoba, focuses on Paleozoic reefs and ancient sedimentary environments. Dobrzanske, a collections technician and field expert, brought deep practical knowledge to the fieldwork.

It was the perfect blend of expertise and passion.

One overcast morning, while surveying outcrops of Ordovician limestone, the team spotted a familiar ripple in the rock—a faint curve suggesting a trilobite’s cephalon, or head shield. As they slowly and carefully uncovered more of the fossil, its remarkable size and completeness became apparent.

The mostly complete holotype specimen of Isotelus rex, from the Churchill River Group, measures a staggering 720 millimetres (28 inches) in length, 400 millimetres (16 inches) in maximum width across the cephalon, and 70 millimetres (3 inches) in height at the posterior midpoint of the head. It remains the largest complete trilobite ever found.

“We thought it might be a fluke,” Rudkin later recalled. “A fragment from a large individual. But as we kept going—it just kept going. That was when we realized we were looking at something truly extraordinary.”

Perfect Conditions for Preservation

Unlike many trilobite fossils, which are found in fragments or disarticulated pieces, Isotelus rex was remarkably well-preserved—fully articulated, lying in life position.

Paleontologists believe it was buried rapidly by fine carbonate mud, likely during a sudden underwater event like a storm or sediment slump. The seafloor at the time was likely anoxic—lacking oxygen—which would have prevented decay and scavenging, allowing the trilobite’s body to remain intact as minerals slowly fossilized it over millions of years.

“It’s one of the most complete large trilobites ever found anywhere in the world,” said Young. “It offers a rare look at what these creatures really looked like, in full form.”

While its size is headline-grabbing, Isotelus rex offers deeper scientific insights. It shows that trilobites—already known for their diversity—could grow far larger than previously thought. Its presence in northern Manitoba also highlights how much of Canada’s paleontological richness remains underexplored.

The fossil was later transported to Winnipeg, where it became a highlight of the Manitoba Museum’s paleontology collection. A custom case was built to display it—regular trilobite mounts just wouldn’t do for a specimen of this scale.

The name Isotelus rex—Latin for “equal end king”—reflects both its classification and its grandeur.

Today, Isotelus rex is more than just a museum centerpiece. It’s a reminder of the power of curiosity, collaboration, and exploration. It represents a frozen moment from 450 million years ago, when trilobites were the dominant animals of Earth’s seas.

And thanks to the eyes, hands, and minds of Rudkin, Elias, Young, and Dobrzanske, we now know what the king of trilobites looked like and he is an impressive specimen, indeed!

Image credit: Isotelus rex TMP 2009.003.0003 (cast). 445 million years old, late Ordovician, Churchill River Group, Churchill, Manitoba. At the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. Bloopityboop

BURGESS SHALE FOSSILS: A DEEP TIME JOURNEY IN YOHO NATIONAL PARK

Tucked high in the Canadian Rockies above the tiny hamlet of Field, British Columbia, lies one of the most extraordinary fossil sites on Earth — the Burgess Shale. 

This UNESCO World Heritage site offers a rare and detailed look at life on Earth over half a billion years ago, during a time known as the Cambrian Explosion.

Whether you're a seasoned paleontology buff or a curious traveler, this ancient treasure trove belongs on your bucket list. Here’s everything you need to know about the fossils, the tours, how to get there, where to stay, eat, and explore.

Why Are the Burgess Shale Fossils Important?

The fossils of the Burgess Shale are a paleontological jackpot. Dating back 508 million years, they preserve not just the hard shells and bones, but also the soft tissues of ancient creatures — things like gills, eyes, and guts. These rare details offer a vivid snapshot of life in the ancient Cambrian seas.

Discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1909, the Burgess Shale holds some of the earliest and weirdest animals to ever live on Earth — including:

• Anomalocaris – a top predator with grasping arms and a ring of teeth
• Opabinia – a creature with five eyes and a long, tube-like nose
• Hallucigenia – a spiny worm that once puzzled scientists with its upside-down anatomy
• Pikaia – one of the first known animals with a notochord, an early precursor to the backbone

These fossils help us understand the roots of animal evolution — including our own.

Guided Fossil Tours: Hike Through Deep Time

Yes — you can actually visit these ancient fossil beds! Parks Canada offers guided day hikes to several Burgess Shale sites during the summer months (late June to early September). All tours must be booked in advance and are mandatory to access these protected areas. You can take photos galore but cannot collect or keep any of the fossils. They are protected and their removal is illegal.

Book Your Guided Burgess Shale Hike

Here are the main hikes you can choose from:

1. Walcott Quarry Hike

• Difficulty: Challenging (22 km round trip, ~11 hrs)
• Highlights: Iconic fossil site, stunning mountain scenery, classic fossils
• Departs from: Takakkaw Falls parking lot, Yoho National Park

2. Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds

• Difficulty: Moderate (8 km round trip, ~6 hrs)
• Highlights: Ground covered in trilobites, panoramic views
• Departs from: Field Visitor Centre

3. Stanley Glacier Hike (Kootenay National Park)

• Difficulty: Moderate (10 km round trip, ~7 hrs)
• Highlights: Newer fossil site, unique specimens, stunning glaciers
• Departs from: Stanley Glacier Trailhead

Note: You’ll need good hiking shoes, layers for changing weather, plenty of water, and a spirit of adventure.

Where to Stay Near the Burgess Shale

Field, BC is the perfect home base for your fossil adventure. It’s quaint, quiet, and surrounded by jaw-dropping mountain beauty.

Top Places to Stay:

• Cathedral Mountain Lodge – Rustic luxury cabins, great food, stunning setting.
• Emerald Lake Lodge – A short drive away, this lakeside lodge is a slice of paradise.
• Guesthouses & B&Bs in Field – Charming, cozy options like The Great Divide Lodge and Fireweed Hostel.

Where to Eat in and Around Field

While Field is small, it packs a punch with local, hearty eats:

• Truffle Pigs Bistro – Field’s culinary gem. Comfort food with a gourmet twist.
• The Siding Café – Great for coffee, sandwiches, and baked goods. Cozy and casual.
• Cathedral Mountain Lodge Dining Room – Upscale Rocky Mountain dining if you’re staying at the lodge.

Tip: There’s no gas station in Field. Fill up in Lake Louise (30 minutes away).

How to Get to Field, British Columbia

Field is nestled in Yoho National Park, just off the Trans-Canada Highway. Here's how long it'll take you from major cities:

Driving Times to Field, BC

• From Vancouver: ~8.5 hours (850 km via Hwy 1 through Kamloops and Golden)
• From Calgary: ~2.5 hours (215 km via Hwy 1 through Banff and Lake Louise)

You’ll pass through some of the most scenic mountain corridors in North America. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for wildlife — mountain goats, bears, and elk often make an appearance.

A Lasting Legacy in Stone

Standing among the Burgess Shale beds, surrounded by towering peaks and the whispers of deep time, it’s hard not to feel humbled. These fossils tell the story of life’s earliest steps into complexity — a reminder of how strange, beautiful, and interconnected our world truly is.

Whether you're chasing trilobites or just soaking in the grandeur of Yoho’s landscapes, the Burgess Shale offers something extraordinary: a chance to walk with the ghosts of Earth’s earliest animals.

Learn More: (pop these in Google for more information)

• Parks Canada – Burgess Shale Official Site
• Royal Ontario Museum – Burgess Shale Project
• UNESCO World Heritage Info

I highly recommend all of these hikes. If you have the time and fitness, they are amazing and each of them offers some epic views!

ANCIENT SEA MONSTERS: ICHTHYOSAURS AND MOSASAURS

When we think of prehistoric creatures, dinosaurs usually steal the spotlight. But beneath the ancient waves swam giants just as awe-inspiring—and sometimes even more terrifying. 

Among these marine reptiles, two groups stand out: ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs. Though they never coexisted, both ruled the oceans in their own time and in their own terrifying ways.

Ichthyosaurs: Dolphin-Like Reptiles of the Jurassic

Ichthyosaurs (meaning "fish lizards") were sleek, fast swimmers that first appeared around 250 million years ago during the Triassic. 

Their streamlined bodies, long snouts, and large eyes gave them an appearance eerily similar to modern dolphins—though they weren’t mammals. This resemblance is a perfect example of convergent evolution, where unrelated animals develop similar traits to adapt to similar environments.

Some ichthyosaurs grew as long as a school bus, and their enormous eyes (some as large as dinner plates) suggest they were capable of deep-sea hunting. They fed on fish, squid, and other marine life, and some species likely gave birth to live young—a rare trait among reptiles.

They thrived for millions of years but began to decline in the mid-Cretaceous, eventually going extinct before the rise of mosasaurs.

Mosasaurs: Apex Predators of the Cretaceous Seas

Enter the mosasaurs, who rose to dominance after the ichthyosaurs were gone. Mosasaurs appeared around 98 million years ago and ruled the oceans until the mass extinction event 66 million years ago that also wiped out the dinosaurs.

These were true marine lizards, closely related to today’s monitor lizards and snakes. Picture a massive, crocodile-headed Komodo dragon with flippers and a shark-like tail—and you’ll have a good image of a mosasaur. Some species grew over 50 feet long, and their jaws were packed with conical, backward-curving teeth perfect for gripping slippery prey.

Mosasaurs were apex predators, eating anything they could catch—fish, turtles, birds, and even other mosasaurs. Their double-jointed jaws could open wide, allowing them to swallow large prey whole.

Who Would Win in a Fight?

While it’s fun to imagine a battle between an ichthyosaur and a mosasaur, it never could have happened—ichthyosaurs were long extinct by the time mosasaurs evolved. That said, mosasaurs were more heavily built and had powerful jaws, making them formidable hunters. Ichthyosaurs were faster and more agile, more suited to quick chases than brute force.

Legacy Beneath the Waves

Both ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs left behind rich fossil records, giving scientists insight into how reptiles adapted to life in the oceans. Their bones have been found on every continent, including Antarctica, reminding us that the ancient oceans were just as dynamic and dangerous as today’s wildest habitats.

Next time you watch a documentary about dinosaurs or visit a natural history museum, take a moment to appreciate the marine reptiles that once ruled the seas. After all, the land wasn't the only place where prehistoric giants thrived.

UNEARTHING A JUVENILE ELASMOSAUR ON THE TRENT RIVER

Pat Trask with a Fossil Rib Bone. Photo: Rebecca Miller

In August of 2020, an incredible elasmosaur fossil—a mighty marine reptile—was unearthed high up on the cliffs of the Trent River near Courtenay, on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. 

This thrilling find marks the culmination of a three-year palaeontological puzzle that began with mere fragments and ended with a daring cliffside excavation!

Elasmosaurs were long-necked marine reptiles roaming Earth's oceans from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous (roughly 215 to 80 million years ago). 

Our Trent River specimen clocks in at about 85 million years old. The rock layers in this area were originally laid down as tropical islands far to the south of the equator. Over tens of millions of years, plate tectonics slowly carried these ancient seabeds north and slightly east to the site we know today on Vancouver Island.

For years, tantalizing fragments of this juvenile elasmosaur washed out of the riverbanks—bones that fired the imagination of fossil enthusiasts but stubbornly refused to reveal their precise origin. The first clue surfaced back in 2017 during a Courtenay Museum fossil tour led by Pat Trask. 

One lucky participant picked up a small finger bone from the river. Pat recognized it immediately as belonging to a marine reptile, possibly an elasmosaur. Although it was an exciting discovery, its source on the cliffs remained a frustrating mystery.

Fast forward to 2018. Another fossil tour, another chance encounter: a wrist bone—again, possibly elasmosaur—turning up in the Trent River. Pat looked down in that very moment and spotted a vertebra right at his feet! Now with multiple bones in hand, Pat collected them in the museum’s lab, increasingly determined to find their point of origin.

Throughout 2019, Pat and volunteers from the Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society (VIPS) combed the area for clues. They rappelled down cliff faces, deployed a drone to scour every crack and crevice, but found nothing definitive. 

Then, in August 2020, everything changed. While leading another fossil tour, Pat stumbled across a newly revealed bone in the river—one that absolutely had not been there the day before. Looking up, he spotted a promising section of cliff and, with help from his wife, Deb, and a trusty telescope, he finally spied a bone jutting from the rock.

The excavation that followed was a marvel of planning and perseverance. Scaffolding had to be built, climbing gear prepared, and countless safety measures put into place. 

Over several weeks, the team carefully pried fossil after fossil from the cliff—loose rib bones, gastroliths (stones swallowed for digestion), wrist bones, finger bones, and parts of the back and pelvis. 

The bigger prize, wrapped safely in plaster and lowered ever-so-gently to the riverbank below, contained an array of bones that could include the skull.

Pat Trask Wrapping the plaster casing

This discovery is part of the Trent River’s ongoing reputation for yielding stunning fossils. 

The Courtenay Museum regularly hosts tours here, offering members of the public a chance to walk the same banks and maybe—just maybe—spot the next big find. 

Past discoveries include other marine reptiles and invertebrate fossils, painting a picture of Vancouver Island’s prehistoric marine ecosystems.

For Pat Trask and his family, the discovery is deeply personal. Pat’s brother, Mike Trask, famously found another elasmosaur on the nearby Puntledge River back in 1988. 

There’s even talk that if this particular find proves to be a new species, it could bear the Trask family name in the scientific literature—a fitting tribute to their passion, grit, and history-making finds in the Comox Valley.

 So far, the bones point clearly to an elasmosaur. At roughly four meters in length, this juvenile is smaller than its adult kin, but it’s no less impressive. Every retrieved vertebra, humerus, and pelvis bone draws us deeper into the ancient ocean world of 85 million years ago. James Wood of the VIPS has taken on the painstaking task of preparing the specimen, aided by a new air abrasive generously provided by the Courtenay Museum.

With the fossil safely in the museum’s care, and research well underway, the Trent River elasmosaur story is poised to shine a spotlight on Vancouver Island’s extraordinary prehistoric past. From the moment that first finger bone surfaced in 2017 to the triumphant lowering of the plaster-wrapped jacket in 2020, this has been an adventure for the ages—and a spectacular reminder that our island still has secrets waiting to be discovered!

I hope to see it published with the Trask family name. Their paleontological history is forever tied to the Comox Valley and the honour would be fitting.  

Photo One: Rebecca Miller, Little Prints Photography — she is awesome!

Photo Two: James Wood prepped the material and Pat Trask labelled and oriented the bones.

Photo Three: Pat Trask perched atop scaffolding along the Trent River. And yes, he's attached to a safety line to secure him in case of fall. 

Photo Four: A diagram of the juvenile elasmosaur. See the Excavation Moment via Video Link: https://youtu.be/r82EcEF7Pfc

BLUE LIAS ICHTHYOSAUR

This well-preserved partial ichthyosaur was found in the Blue Lias shales by Lewis Winchester-Ellis. The vertebrae you see here are from the tail section of this marine reptile.

The find includes stomach contents which tell us a little about how this particular fellow liked to dine.

As with most of his brethren, he enjoyed fish and cephalopods. Lewis found fishbone and squid tentacle hooklets in his belly. 

Oh yes, these ancient cephies had grasping hooklets on their tentacles. I'm picturing them wiggling all ominously. The hooklets were the only hard parts of the animal preserved in this case as the softer parts of this ancient calamari were fully or partially digested before this ichthyosaur met his end.

Ichthyosaurus was an extinct marine reptile first described from fossil fragments found in 1699 in Wales. Shortly thereafter, fossil vertebrae were published in 1708 from the Lower Jurassic and the first member of the order Ichthyosauria to be discovered.

To give that a bit of historical significance, this was the age of James Stuart, Jacobite hopeful to the British throne. While scientific journals of the day were publishing the first vertebrae ichthyosaur finds, he was avoiding the French fleet in the Firth of Forth off Scotland. This wasn’t Bonnie Prince Charlie, this was his Dad. Yes, that far back.

The first complete skeleton was discovered in the early 19th century by Mary Anning and her brother Joseph along the Dorset Jurassic Coast. Joseph had mistakenly, but quite reasonably, taken the find for an ancient crocodile. Mary excavated the specimen a year later and it was this and others that she found that would supply the research base others would soon publish on.

Mary's find was described by a British surgeon, Sir Everard Home, an elected Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1814. The specimen is now on display at the Natural History Museum in London bearing the name Temnodontosaurus platyodon, or “cutting-tooth lizard.”

Ichthyosaurus communis

In 1821, William Conybeare and Henry De La Beche, a friend of Mary's, published a paper describing three new species of unknown marine reptiles based on the Anning's finds.

Rev. William Buckland would go on to describe two small ichthyosaurs from the Lias of Lyme Regis, Ichthyosaurus communis and Ichthyosaurus intermedius, in 1837.

Remarkable, you'll recall that he was a theologian, geologist, palaeontologist AND Dean of Westminster. It was Buckland who published the first full account of a dinosaur in 1824, coining the name, "Megalosaurus."

The Age of Dinosaurs and Era of the Mighty Marine Reptile had begun.

Ichthyosaurs have been collected in the Blue Lias near Lyme Regis and the Black Ven Marls. More recently, specimens have been collected from the higher succession near Seatown. Paddy Howe, Lyme Regis Museum geologist, found a rather nice Ichthyosaurus breviceps skull a few years back. A landslip in 2008 unveiled some ribs poking out of the Church cliffs and a bit of digging revealed the ninth fossil skull ever found of a breviceps, with teeth and paddles to boot.

Specimens have since been found in Europe in Belgium, England, Germany, Switzerland and in Indonesia. Many tremendously well-preserved specimens come from the limestone quarries in Holzmaden, southern Germany.

Ichthyosaurs ranged from quite small, just a foot or two, to well over twenty-six metres in length and resembled both modern fish and dolphins.

Dean Lomax and Sven Sachs, both active (and delightful) vertebrate paleontologists, have described a colossal beast, Shonisaurus sikanniensis from the Upper Triassic (Norian) Pardonet Formation of northeastern British Columbia, Canada, measuring 3-3.5 meters in length. The specimen is now on display in the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada. It was this discovery that tipped the balance in the vote, making it British Columbia's Official Fossil. Ichthyosaurs have been found at other sites in British Columbia, on Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) but Shoni tipped the ballot.

The first specimens of Shonisaurus were found in the 1990s by Peter Langham at Doniford Bay on the Somerset coast of England.

Dr. Betsy Nicholls, Rolex Laureate Vertebrate Palaeontologist from the Royal Tyrrell Museum, excavated the type specimen of Shonisaurus sikanniensis over three field sessions in one of the most ambitious fossil excavations ever ventured. Her efforts from 1999 through 2001, both in the field and lobbying back at home, paid off. Betsy published on this new species in 2004, the culmination of her life’s work and her last paper as we lost her to cancer in autumn of that year.

Roy Chapman Andrews, AMNH 1928 Expedition to the Gobi Desert

Charmingly, Betsy had a mail correspondence with Roy Chapman Andrews, former director of the American Museum of Natural History, going back to the late 1950s as she explored her potential career in palaeontology. Do you recall the AMNH’s sexy paleo photos of expeditions to the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia in China in the early 20th century? I've posted a picture here to jog your memory. Roy Chapman Andrews was the lead on that trip. The man was dead sexy. His photos are what fueled the flames of my own interest in paleo.

We've found at least 37 specimens of Shonisaurus in Triassic outcrops of the Luning Formation in the Shoshone Mountains of Nevada, USA. The finds go back to the 1920s. The specimens that may it to publication were collected by M. Wheat and C. L. Camp in the 1950s.  The aptly named Shonisaurus popularis became the Nevada State Fossil in 1984. Our Shoni got around. Isolated remains have been found in a section of sandstone in Belluno, in the Eastern Dolomites, Veneto region of northeastern Italy. The specimens were published by Vecchia et al. in 2002.

For a time, Shonisaurus was the largest ichthyosaurus known.

Move over, Shoni, as a new marine reptile find competes with the Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus) and the Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) for size at a whopping twenty-six (26) metres.

The find is the prize of fossil collector turned co-author, Paul de la Salle, who (you guessed it) found it in the lower part of the intertidal area that outcrops strata from the latest Triassic Westbury Mudstone Formation of Lilstock on the Somerset coast. He contacted Dean Lomax and Judy Massare who became co-authors on the paper.

The find and conclusions from their paper put "dinosaur" bones from the historic Westbury Mudstone Formation of Aust Cliff, Gloucestershire, UK site into full reinterpretation.

And remember that ichthyosaur the good Reverend Buckland described back in 1837, the Ichthyosaurus communis? Dean Lomax was the first to describe a wee baby. A wee baby ichthyosaur! Awe. I know, right? He and paleontologist Nigel Larkin published this adorable first in the journal of Historical Biology in 2017.

They had teamed up previously on another first back in 2014 when they completed the reconstruction of an entire large marine reptile skull and mandible in 3-D, then graciously making it available to fellow researchers and the public. The skull and braincase in question were from an Early Jurassic, and relatively rare, Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis. The specimen had been unearthed in Warwickshire back in the 1950s. Unlike most ichthyosaur finds of this age, it was not compressed and allowed the team to look at a 3-D specimen through the lens of computerized tomography (CT) scanning.

Another superb 3-D ichthyosaur skull was found near Lyme Regis by fossil hunter-turned-entrepreneur-local David Sole and prepped by the late David Costain. I'm rather hoping it went into a museum collection as it would be wonderful to see the specimen studied, imaged, scanned and 3-D printed for all to share. Here's hoping.

Ichthyosaurus somersetensis Credit: Dean R Lomax

Lomax and Sven Sachs also published on an embryo from one of the largest ichthyosaurs known, a new species named Ichthyosaurus somersetensis.

Their paper in the ACTA Palaeontologica Polonica from 2017, describes the third embryo known for Ichthyosaurus and the first to be positively identified to species level. The specimen was collected from Lower Jurassic strata (lower Hettangian, Blue Lias Formation) of Doniford Bay, Somerset, UK and is housed in the collection of the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum (Lower Saxony State Museum) in Hannover, Germany.

We have learned a lot about them in the time we've been studying them. We now have thousands of specimens, some whole, some as bits and pieces. Many specimens that have been collected are only just now being studied and the tools we are using to study them are getting better and better.

Link to Lomax Paper: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article…

Link to Nathan's Paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/…/10.1080/03115518.2018.1523462…

Nicholls Paper: E. L. Nicholls and M. Manabe. 2004. Giant ichthyosaurs of the Triassic - a new species of Shonisaurus from the Pardonet Formation (Norian: Late Triassic) of British Columbia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24(4):838-849 [M. Carrano/H. Street]

BEARS: HARBINGERS OF SPRING

Stretching the legs on a Spring stroll

Some of Vancouver Island’s many bears take a stroll through the wilds in the Comox Valley. 

While stumbling upon them may cause us surprise, they have heard us (and smelled us) coming for miles. 

If you work or play in the woods of British Columbia, both grizzly and black bear sightings are common. 

As Spring arrives with warmer weather and growing daylight, bears begin awakening in the Comox Valley, across Vancouver Island and around the rest of the province, they wake up thirsty and often quench their thirst, then head back to their dens for more sleep. 

As well as parched, some have such powerful hunger they choose to forgo more sleep in favour of beginning the welcome task of searching for food. 

 

Up for a Spring snack but still a bit sleepy

They snack on plant roots, grasses, berries, insects, the shellfish on our coastlines and small mammals—all to replace the many calories they burned off over their winter hibernation. 

Nearly half the world's population, some 26,000 grizzly bears and 380,000 black bears, roam the Canadian wilderness — of those, 14,000 grizzlies and around 140,000-ish black bears call British Columbia home. 

These highly intelligent omnivores lumber along our coastlines, mountains and forests. It is hard to confirm how many live on Vancouver Island, but estimates range from 7,000 to 12,000. 

Bears in the Fossil Record Both bear families descend from a common ancestor, Ursavus, a bear-dog the size of a raccoon who lived more than 20 million years ago. Seems an implausible lineage given the size of their enormous descendants. 

Our Island black bears are a little larger than their mainland counterparts. Females can weigh up to almost 400 lbs or (180 kg), and our males get up to 600 lbs or (275 kg) in weight. 

Their beefy cousins get even bigger. An average grizzly weighs in around 800 lbs (363 kg), but a recent find in Alaska tops the charts at 1600 lbs (726 kg). This mighty beast stood 12' 6' high at the shoulder, 14' to the top of his head and is one of the largest grizzlies ever recorded — a na̱ndzi. Adult bears tend to live solo except during mating season. 

Those looking for love congregate from May to July hoping to find a mate. Through adaptation to shifting seasons, the females' reproductive system delays the implantation of fertilised eggs — blastocysts —until November or December to ensure her healthy pups arrive during hibernation. If food resources are slim, the newly formed embryo does not catch or attach to her uterine wall, and she would try again next year. 

Female grizzly bears reach mating maturity at 4-5 years of age. They give birth to a single or up to four cubs (though usually just two) in January or February. The newborn cubs are cute little nuggets — tiny, hairless, and helpless — weighing in at 2-3 kilograms or 4-8 pounds. 

They feast on their mother’s nutrient-dense milk for the first two months of life then stay with their mother for another 16 months or more. 

Once fully grown, they can run 56 km an hour, are good at climbing trees, swimming, and live 20-25 years in the wild. 

Bear encounters bring a humbling appreciation of how remarkable these massive beasts are. Knowing their level of intelligence, keen memory, and bite force of over 8,000,000 pascals — enough to crush a bowling ball — inspires awe and caution in equal measure. 

They have an indescribable presence. It is likely because of this that these majestic bears show up often in the superb carvings and work of First Nations artists. First Nation Lore and Language In the Kwak'wala language of the Kwakwaka'wakw — speakers of Kwak'wala — a grizzly bear is known as nan. 

The ornamental carved grizzly bear headdress worn by the comic Dluwalakha Grizzly Bear Dancers — Once more from Heaven — in the Grizzly Bear Dance or Gaga̱lalał, is known as na̱ng̱a̱mł. 

The Dluwalakha dancers receive supernatural treasures or dloogwi, which they pass down from generation to generation. 

Kwaguʼł Winter Dancers — Qagyuhl 

Should you encounter a black bear and wish to greet them in Kwak'wala, you would call them t̕ła'yi. Kwakiutl First Nations, Smoke of the World, count Grizzly Bears as an ancestor — along with Seagull, Sun and Thunderbird. To tell stories of the ancestors is na̱wiła. 

Smoke of the World / Speaking of the Ancestors — Na̱wiła

Each of these ancestors took off their masks to become human and founded the many groups now bound together by language and culture as Kwakwaka’wakw. Not all Kwakwaka'wakw dance the Gaga̱lalał, but their ancestors likely attended feasts where the great bear was celebrated. To speak or tell stories of the ancestors is na̱wiła — and Grizzly bear as an ancestor is Na̱n Helus. 

Whether ancestor or neighbour, these beautiful creatures live all around us. We may see them moving through our neighbourhoods for food or returning to their habitat. 

It is vital for all of us to be mindful of how our actions impact them and to keep attractants — delicious, smelly garbage and open food — in sealed garbage cans and not outside in open containers. We share this world with them and it is our responsibility to help keep them — and us — safe. 

Reporting Encounters: If you encounter wildlife that is aggressive or causing property damage, call the BC Conservation Officer Service at 1-877-952-7277 (RAPP). 

Bear Aware: BearWise offers great advice helping people live responsibly with bears. You can visit them online at https://bearwise.org/

FOSSIL BIRDS OF SOUTHERN VANCOUVER ISLAND

Stemec suntokum, Sooke Formation

The diving bird you see here is Stemec suntokum, a Fossil Plopterid from Sooke, British Columbia, Canada.

We all dream of finding new species, and new fossil species in particular. This happens more than you think. As impossible as it sounds, it has happened numerous times at many fossils sites in British Columbia including Sooke on Vancouver Island.

The upper Oligocene Sooke Formation outcrops at Muir Beach on southwestern Vancouver Island, British Columbia where it is flanked by the cool, clear waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

While the site has been known since the 1890s, my first trip here was in the early 1990s as part of a Vancouver Paleontological Society (VanPS) fossil field trip. 

This easy, beach walk locality is a wonderful place to collect fossils and is especially good for families. If you are solar-powered, you will enjoy the sun playing off the surf from May through September. If you are built of hardier stuff, then the drizzle of Spring or Autumn is a lovely, un-people-y time to walk the beachfront.

As well as amazing west coast scenery, the beach site outcrop has a lovely soft matrix with well-preserved fossil molluscs, often with the shell material preserved (Clark and Arnold, 1923).

By the Oligocene ocean temperatures had cooled to near modern levels and the taxa preserved here as fossils bear a strong resemblance to those found living beneath the Strait of Juan de Fuca today. Gastropods, bivalves, echinoids, coral, chitin and limpets are common-ish — and on rare occasions, fossil marine mammals, cetacean and bird bones are discovered.

Fossil Bird Bones 

Back in 2013, Steve Suntok and his family found fossilized bones from a 25-million-year-old wing-propelled flightless diving bird while out strolling the shoreline near Sooke. Not knowing what they had found but recognizing it as significant, the bones were brought to the Royal British Columbia Museum to identify.

The bones found their way into the hands of Gary Kaiser. Kaiser worked as a biologist for Environment Canada and the Nature Conservatory of Canada. After retirement, he turned his eye from our extant avian friends to their fossil lineage. The thing about passion is it never retires. Gary is now a research associate with the Royal British Columbia Museum, published author and continues his research on birds and their paleontological past.

Kaiser identified the well-preserved coracoid bones as the first example from Canada of a Plotopteridae, an extinct family that lived in the North Pacific from the late Eocene to the early Miocene. In honour of the First Nations who have lived in the area since time immemorial and Steve Suntok who found the fossil, Kaiser named the new genus and species Stemec suntokum.

Magellanic Penguin Chick, Spheniscus magellanicus

This is a very special find. Avian fossils from the Sooke Formation are rare. We are especially lucky that the bird bone was fossilized at all.  These are delicate bones and tasty. Scavengers often get to them well before they have a chance and the right conditions to fossilize.

Doubly lucky is that the find was of a coracoid, a bone from the shoulder that provides information on how this bird moved and dove through the water similar to a penguin. It's the wee bit that flexes as the bird moves his wing up and down.

Picture a penguin doing a little waddle and flapping their flipper-like wings getting ready to hop near and dive into the water. Now imagine them expertly porpoising —  gracefully jumping out of the sea and zigzagging through the ocean to avoid predators. It is likely that the Sooke find did some if not all of these activities.

When preservation conditions are kind and we are lucky enough to find the forelimbs of our plotopterid friends, their bones tell us that these water birds used wing-propelled propulsion to move through the water similar to penguins (Hasegawa et al., 1979; Olson and Hasegawa, 1979, 1996; Olson, 1980; Kimura et al., 1998; Mayr, 2005; Sakurai et al., 2008; Dyke et al., 2011).

Kaiser published on the find, along with Junya Watanabe, and Marji Johns. Their work: "A new member of the family Plotopteridae (Aves) from the late Oligocene of British Columbia, Canada," can be found in the November 2015 edition of Palaeontologia Electronica. If you fancy a read, I've included the link below.

The paper shares insights into what we have learned from the coracoid bone from the holotype Stemec suntokum specimen. It has an unusually narrow, conical shaft, much more gracile than the broad, flattened coracoids of other avian groups. This observation has led some to question if it is, in fact, a proto-cormorant of some kind. We'll need to find more of their fossilized lineage to make any additional comparisons.

Sooke, British Columbia and Juan de Fuca Strait

Today, fossils from these flightless birds have been found in outcrops in the United States and Japan (Olson and Hasegawa, 1996). They are bigger than the Sooke specimens, often growing up to two metres.

While we'll never know for sure, the wee fellow from the Sooke Formation was likely about 50-65 cm long and weighed in around 1.72-2.2 kg — so roughly the length of a duck and weight of a small Magellanic Penguin, Spheniscus magellanicus, chick. 

To give you a visual, I have included a photo of one of these cuties here showing off his full range of motion and calling common in so many young.

The first fossil described as a Plotopteridae was from a wee piece of the omal end of a coracoid from Oligocene outcrops of the Pyramid Hill Sand Member, Jewett Sand Formation of California (LACM 8927). Hildegarde Howard (1969) an American avian palaeontologist described it as Plotopterum joaquinensis. Hildegarde also did some fine work in the La Brea Tar Pits, particularly her work on the Rancho La Brea eagles.

In 1894, a portion of a pelagornithid tarsometatarsus, a lower leg bone from Cyphornis magnus (Cope, 1894) was found in Carmanah Group on southwestern Vancouver Island (Wetmore, 1928) and is now in the collections of the National Museum of Canada as P-189401/6323. This is the wee bone we find in the lower leg of birds and some dinosaurs. We also see this same bony feature in our Heterodontosauridae, a family of early and adorably tiny ornithischian dinosaurs — a lovely example of parallel evolution.

While rare, more bird bones have been found in the Sooke Formation over the past decade. In 2013, three avian bones were found in a single year. The first two were identified as possibly being from a cormorant and tentatively identified as Phalacrocoracidae tibiotarsi, the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird.

They are now in the collections of the Royal BC Museum as (RBCM.EH2013.033.0001.001 and RBCM.EH2013.035.0001.001). These bones do have the look of our extant cormorant friends but the specimens themselves were not very well-preserved so a positive ID is tricky.

The third (and clearly not last) bone, is a well-preserved coracoid bone now in the collection at the RBCM as (RBCM.EH2014.032.0001.001).

The fossil bird find was the first significant find by the Suntok family but not their last. Just last year, they found part of a fish dental plate was studied by Russian researcher Evgeny Popov who named this new genus and species of prehistoric fish Canadodus suntoki, which translates to the "Tooth from Canada." Perhaps not quite as inspired as Kaiser, but a lovely homage to these Citizen Scientists.

Sooke Fossil Fauna

Along with these rare bird bones, the Paleogene sedimentary deposits of the Carmanah Group on southwestern Vancouver Island have a wonderful diversity of delicate fossil molluscs (Clark and Arnold, 1923). Walking along the beach, look for boulders with white shelly material in them. You'll want to collect from the large fossiliferous blocks and avoid the cliffs. The lines of fossils you see in those cliffs tell the story of deposition along a strandline. Collecting from them is both unsafe and poor form as it disturbs nearby neighbours and is discouraged.

Sooke Formation Gastropods, Photo: John Fam

We find nearshore and intertidal genera such as Mytilus (mussels) and barnacles, as well as more typically subtidal predatory globular moon snails (my personal favourite), surf clams (Spisula, Macoma), and thin, flattened Tellin clams.

The preservation here formed masses of shell coquinas that cemented together but are easily worked with a hammer and chisel. Remember your eye protection and I'd choose wellies or rubber boots over runners or hikers.

You may be especially lucky on your day out. Look for the larger fossil bones of marine mammals and whales that lived along the North American Pacific Coast in the Early Oligocene (Chattian).

Concretions and coquinas on the beach have yielded desmostylid, an extinct herbivorous marine mammal, Cornwallius sookensis (Cornwall, 1922) and 40 cm. skull of a cetacean Chonecetus sookensis (Russell, 1968), and a funnel whale, a primitive ancestor of our Baleen whales. 

A partial lower jaw and molar possibly from a large, bear-like beach-dwelling carnivore, Kolponomos, was also found here. A lovely skull from a specimen of Kolponomos clallamensis (Stirton, 1960) was found 60 km southwest across the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the early Miocene Clallam Formation and published by Lawrence Barnes and James Goedert. That specimen now calls the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County home and is in their collections as #131148.

Directions to Muir Creek Fossil Site at Sooke: 

From the town of Sooke west of Victoria, follow Highway 14 for about 14 kilometres. Just past the spot where the highway crosses Muir Creek, you will see a gravel parking area on your left. Pull in and park here. 

From the barrier, walk out to the beach and turn right (west) and walk until you see the low yellow-brown sandstone cliffs about 400 metres ahead. 

Look at the grey sandstone boulders on the beach with bits of white flecks in them. The fossil material here will most often be a whitish cream colour. Check for low tide before heading out and choose rubber boots for this beach adventure.

References: 

L. S. Russell. 1968. A new cetacean from the Oligocene Sooke Formation of Vancouver Island, British Colombia. Canadian Journal of Earth Science 5:929-933
Barnes, Lawrence & Goedert, James. (1996). Marine vertebrate palaeontology on the Olympic Peninsula. Washington Geology, 24(3):17-25.

Fancy a read? Here's the link to Gary Kaiser's paper: https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2015/1359-plotopterid-in-canada. If you'd like to head to the beach site, head to: 48.4°N 123.9°W, paleo-coordinates 48.0°N 115.0°W.

BEAUTIFUL QUENSTEDTOCERAS AMMONITE WITH PATHOLOGY

What you are seeing here is a protuberance extruding from the venter of Quenstedtoceras cf. leachi (Sowerby). 

It is a pathology in the shell from hosting immature bivalves that shared the seas with these Middle Jurassic, Upper Callovian, Lamberti zone fauna from the Volga River basin. The collecting site is the now inactive Dubki commercial clay quarry and brickyard near Saratov, Russia. 

The site has produced thousands of ammonite specimens. A good 1,100 of those ended up at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota. 

Roughly 1,000 of those are Quenstedtoceras (Lamberticeras) lamberti and the other 100 are a mix of other species found in the same zone. These included Eboraciceras, Peltoceras, Kosmoceras, Grossouvria, Proriceras, Cadoceras and Rursiceras. 

What is especially interesting is the volume of specimens — 167 Quenstedtoceras (Lamberticeras) lamberti and 89 other species in the Black Hills collection — with healed predation injuries. It seems Quenstedtoceras (Lamberticeras) lamberti are the most common specimens found here and so not surprisingly the most common species found injured. Of the 1,000, 655 of the Quenstedtoceras (Lamberticeras) lamberti displayed some sort of deformation or growth on the shell or had grown in a tilted manner. 

Again, some of the Q. lamberti had small depressions in the centre likely due to a healed bite and hosting infestations of the immature bivalve Placunopsis and some Ostrea. 

The bivalves thrived on their accommodating hosts and the ammonites carried on, growing their shells right up and over their bivalve guests. This relationship led to some weird and deformities of their shells. They grow in, around, up and over nearly every surface of the shell and seem to have lived out their lives there. It must have gotten a bit unworkable for the ammonites, their shells becoming warped and unevenly weighted. Over time, both the flourishing bivalves and the ammonite shells growing up and over them produced some of the most interesting pathology specimens I have ever seen.    

In the photo here from Emil Black, you can see some of the distorted shapes of Quenstedtoceras sp. Look closely and you see a trochospiral or flattened appearance on one side while they are rounded on the other. 

All of these beauties hail from the Dubki Quarry near Saratov, Russia. The ammonites were collected in marl or clay used in brick making. The clay particles suggest a calm, deep marine environment. One of the lovely features of the preservation here is the amount of pyrite filling and replacement. It looks like these ammonites were buried in an oxygen-deficient environment. 

The ammonites were likely living higher in the water column, well above the oxygen-poor bottom. An isotopic study would be interesting to prove this hypothesis. 

There's certainly enough of these ammonites that have been recovered to make that possible. It's estimated that over a thousand specimens have been recovered from the site but that number is likely much higher. But these are not complete specimens. We mostly find the phragmocones and partial body chambers. Given the numbers, this may be a site documenting a mass spawning death over several years or generations.

If you fancy a read on all things cephie, consider picking up a copy of Cephalopods Present and Past: New Insights and Fresh Perspectives edited by Neil Landman and Richard Davis. Figure 16.2 is from page 348 of that publication and shows the hosting predation quite well. 

Photos: Courtesy of the deeply awesome Emil Black. These are in his personal collection that I hope to see in person one day. 

It was his sharing of the top photo and the strange anomaly that had me explore more about the fossils from Dubki and the weird and wonderful hosting relationship between ammonites and bivalves. Thank you, my friend!

WARRIOR CRABS: KU'MIS

Look how epic this little guy is! 

He is a crab — and if you asked him, the fiercest warrior that ever lived. While that may not be strictly true, crabs do have the heart of a warrior and will raise their claws, sometimes only millimetres into the air, to assert dominance over their world. 

Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the Phylum Arthropoda. 

In the Kwak'wala language of the Kwakwaka'wakw of the Pacific Northwest, this brave fellow is ḵ̓u'mis — both a tasty snack and familiar to the supernatural deity Tuxw'id, a female warrior spirit. Given their natural armour and clear bravery, it is a fitting role.

They inhabit all the world's oceans, sandy beaches, many of our freshwater lakes and streams. Some few prefer to live in forests.

Crabs build their shells from highly mineralized chitin — and chitin gets around. It is the main structural component of the exoskeletons of many of our crustacean and insect friends. Shrimp, crab, and lobster all use it to build their exoskeletons.

Chitin is a polysaccharide — a large molecule made of many smaller monosaccharides or simple sugars, like glucose. 

It is handy stuff, forming crystalline nanofibrils or whiskers. Chitin is actually the second most abundant polysaccharide after cellulose. It is interesting as we usually think of these molecules in the context of their sugary context but they build many other very useful things in nature — not the least of these are the hard shells or exoskeletons of our crustacean friends.

Crabs in the Fossil Record

The earliest unambiguous crab fossils date from the Early Jurassic, with the oldest being Eocarcinus from the early Pliensbachian of Britain, which likely represents a stem-group lineage, as it lacks several key morphological features that define modern crabs. 

Most Jurassic crabs are only known from dorsal — or top half of the body — carapaces, making it difficult to determine their relationships. Crabs radiated in the Late Jurassic, corresponding with an increase in reef habitats, though they would decline at the end of the Jurassic as the result of the decline of reef ecosystems. Crabs increased in diversity through the Cretaceous and represented the dominant group of decapods by the end.

We find wonderful fossil crab specimens on Vancouver Island. The first I ever collected was at Shelter Point, then again on Hornby Island, down on the Olympic Peninsula and along Vancouver Island's west coast near Nootka Sound. They are, of course, found globally and are one of the most pleasing fossils to find and aggravating to prep of all the specimens you will ever have in your collection. Bless them.

SLOTHS AND BLUE GREEN ALGAE

Ever wonder why the slow moving sloth has a slightly greenish hue? Ever consider the sloth at all? Well, perhaps not. Location, location, location, is the mantra for many of us in our macro world, but it is also true for the small world of algae.

Blue green algae is a term used to describe any of a large, heterogeneous group of prokaryotic, principally photosynthetic organisms.

These little oxygenic (oxygen-producing) fellows appeared about 2,000,000,000 to 3,000,000,000 years ago and are given credit for greatly increasing the oxygen content of the atmosphere, making possible the development of aerobic (oxygen-using) organisms and some very special relationships with some of the slowest moving mammals on the planet, the sloths or Folivora.

The tribes of South America who live close to these insect and leaf-eaters, call these arboreal browsers "Ritto, Rit or Ridette, which roughly translates to variations on sleep, sleepy, munching and filthy. Not all that far off when you consider ths sloth and their lifestyle.

The sloth's body and shaggy coat, or pelage, provides a comfy habitat to two types of wee blue-green algae along with various other invertebrates. The hairs that make up the sloth's coat have grooves that help foster algal growth.

And, while Kermit the Frog says, "it's not easy being green," it couldn't be further from the truth for this slow-moving tree dweller. The blue-green algae gives the sloth a natural greenish camouflage, an arrangement that is certainly win-win.

NANAIMO MOTOR CROSS PIT FOSSIL SITE

Steller's Jay, Cyanocitta stelleri

One of the classic Vancouver Island fossil localities is the Santonian-Maastrichtian, Upper Cretaceous Haslam Formation Motocross Pit near Brannen Lake, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada.

The quarry is no longer active as such though there is a busy little gravel quarry a little way down the road closer to Ammonite falls near Benson Creek Falls.

Today it is an active motocross site and remains one of the classic localities of the Nanaimo Group. 

In these easily accessible (with permission) outcrops we find well-preserved nautiloids and ammonites — Canadoceras, Pseudoschloenbachia, Epigoniceras — the bivalves — Inoceramus, Sphenoceramus— gastropods, and classic Nanaimo Group decapods — Hoploparia, Linuparus. We also find fossil fruit and seeds which tell the story of the terrestrial history of Vancouver Island.

Upper Cretaceous Haslam Formation Motocross Pit near Brannen Lake

It was John Fam, Vice-Chair, Vancouver Island Paleontological Society (VanPS), who originally told me about the locality. John is one of the most delightful and knowledgeable people you'd be well-blessed to meet.

While he lived on Vancouver Island, he was an active member of the VanPS back when I was Chair. Several of the best joint VIPS/VanPS paleontological expeditions were planned with or instigated by his passion for fossils. I tip my hat to him for that drive to see so many of the hard to reach but incredibly beautiful and scientifically important sites—and shared love of all things paleo.

John grew up 15 minutes from the motocross locality and used to collect there a few times a week with his father. John has wonderful parents and since marrying his childhood sweetheart, the amazing Grace, those excellent genetics, curiosity and love of fossils are now being passed to a new generation. It's lovely to see John and Grace continuing tradition with two boys of their own.

I met John way back then and did an overnight at his parent's house the Friday before a weekend field trip to Jurassic Point. It was a joy to have him walk me through his collections and tell his stories from earlier years. After learning about the site from John, I headed up to the Motocross Pit with my Uncle Doug. He was a delightful man who grew up on the coast and had explored much of it but not the fossil site just 10-minutes from his home. It was wonderful to walk through time with him so many years ago and then again solo this past year with sadness in my belly that one of the best I've ever known has left this Earth.

Upper Cretaceous Haslam Formation Motocross Pit near Brannen Lake

There were some no trespassing signs up but no people around, so I walked the periphery looking for the bedrock of the Haslam.

The rocks we find here were laid down south of the equator as small, tropical islands. They rode across the Pacific heading north and slightly east over the past 80 million years to where we find them today.

Jim Haggart and Peter Ward have done much to increase our understanding of the molluscan fauna of the Nanaimo Group. Personally, both personify the charming Indiana Jones school of rugged manly palaeontologists you picture in popular film. Professionally, their singular contributions and collaborative efforts have helped shape our understanding of the correlation of Nanaimo Group fauna to those we find in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia and down in the San Juan Islands of Washington State.

Their work builds on the work of Usher (1952), Matsumoto (1959a, 1959b) and Mallory (1977). A healthy nod goes out to the work of Muller and Jeletzky (1970) for untangling the lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic foundation for our knowledge of the Nanaimo Group.

Candoceras yokoyama, Photo: John Fam, VanPS

As I walked along the bedrock of the Haslam, a Steller's Jay, Cyanocitta stelleri, followed me from tree to tree making his guttural shook, shook, shook call. Instructive, he seemed to be encouraging me, timing his hoots to the beat of my hammer.

If you fancy some additional reading, check out a paper published in the Journal of Paleontology back in 1989 by Haggard and Ward on new Nanaimo Group Ammonites from British Columbia and Washington State.

In it, they look at the ammonite species Puzosia (Mesopuzosia) densicostata Matsumoto, Kitchinites (Neopuzosia) japonicus Spath, Anapachydiscus cf. A. nelchinensis Jones, Menuites cf. M. menu (Forbes), Submortoniceras chicoense (Trask), and Baculites cf. B. boulei Collignon are described from Santonian--Campanian strata of western Canada and northwestern United States.

Stratigraphic occurrences and ranges of the species are summarized and those taxa important for correlation with other areas in the north Pacific region and Late Cretaceous ammonite fauna of the Indo-Pacific region. Here's the link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1305358?seq=1

Peter Ward is a prolific author, both of scientific papers and more popularized works. I highly recommend his book Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History. It is an engaging romp through a decade's research in South Africa's Karoo Desert. It looks like Peter will be at the 15th BCPA Symposium giving a talk and perhaps some paleo-battle with Jim Haggart as we tease through the pros and cons for the Baja California—Baja BC origin story for some of the strata we find further north today.

Photo: Candoceras yokoyamai from the Upper Cretaceous Haslam Formation (Lower Campanian) near Nanaimo, British Columbia. One of the earliest fossils collected by John Fam (1993) and a classic fossil found at the site. This lovely was prepared using only a cold chisel and hammer. Photo & collection of John Fam, VIPS.