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A gull cries in protest at not getting his share of a meal |

Sunday, 15 June 2025
GULLS ON THE FORESHORE: TSIK'WI
Tuesday, 27 May 2025
KI'A'PILANO: STONE, BONE & WATER
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Cretaceous Plant Material / Three Brothers Formation |
If you were standing on the top of the Lion's Gate Bridge looking north you would see the Capilano Reservoir is tucked in between the Lions to the west and Mount Seymour to the east on the North Shore.
The Capilano River on Vancouver's North Shore flows through the Coast Mountains and our coastal rainforest down to the Capilano watershed enroute to Burrard Inlet. The headwaters are at the top of Capilano up near Furry Creek. They flow down through the valley, adding in rainwater, snowmelt and many tributaries before flowing into Capilano Lake. The lake in turn flows through Capilano Canyon and feeds into the Capilano River.
We have Ernest Albert Cleveland to thank for the loss of that salmon but can credit him with much of our drinking water as it is caught and stored by the dam that bears his name. It was his vision to capture the bounty from the watershed and ensure it made its way into our cups and not the sea.
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Capilano River Canyon & Regional Park |
There are Cretaceous fossils found only in the sandstone. You will see exposed shale in the area but it does not contain fossil material.
Capilano Fossil Field Trip:
From Clyde Avenue walk down the path to your left towards the Capilano River. Watch the water level and tread cautiously as it can be slippery if there has been any recent rain. Look for beds of sandstone about 200 meters north of the private bridge and just south of the Highway bridge. The fossil beds are just below the Whytecliff Apartment high rises. Be mindful of high water and slippery rocks.
Monday, 19 May 2025
BRONZE BEAUTY: EIFELIAN PARALEJURUS
It was the colour of this amazing trilobite that captured the eye of David Appleton in whose collection it now resides. He is an avid collector and coming into his own as a macro photographer. I have shared three of his delightful photos for you here.
It initially thought that the gold we see here was added during prep, particularly considering the colouration of the matrix, but macro views of the surface show mineralization and the veins running right through the specimen into the matrix. There is certainly some repairs but that is common in the restoration of these specimens. Many of the trilobites I have seen from Morocco have bronze on black colouring but not usually this pronounced. Even so, there is a tremendous amount of fine anatomy to explore and enjoy in this wonderfully preserved specimen.
Paralejurus is a genus of trilobite in the phylum Arthropoda from the Late Silurian to the Middle Devonian of Africa and Europe. These lovelies grew to be up to nine centimetres, though the fellow you see here is a wee bit over half that size at 5.3 cm.
Paralejurus specimens are very pleasing to the eye with their long, oval outline and arched exoskeletons.
Their cephalon or head is a domed half circle with a smooth surface. The large facet eyes have very pleasing crescent-shaped lids. You can see this rather well in the first of the photos here. The detail is quite remarkable.
As you move down from his head towards the body, there is an almost inconspicuous occipital bone behind the glabella in the transition to his burnt bronze thorax.
The body or thorax has ten narrow segments with a clearly arched and broad axial lobe or rhachis. The pygidium is broad, smooth and strongly fused in contrast to the genus Scutellum in the family Styginidae, which has a pygidium with very attractive distinct furrows that I liken to the look of icing ridges on something sweet — though that may just be me and my sweet tooth talking. In Paralejurus, they look distinctly fused — or able to fuse — to add posterior protection against predators with both the look and function of Roman armour.
In Paralejurus, the axillary lobe is rounded off and arched upwards. It is here that twelve to fourteen fine furrows extend radially to complete the poetry of his body design.
Trilobites were amongst the earliest fossils with hard skeletons and they come in many beautiful forms. While they are extinct today, they were the dominant life form at the beginning of the Cambrian.As a whole, they were amongst some of the most successful of all early animals — thriving and diversifying in our ancient oceans for almost 300 million years. The last of their brethren disappeared at the end of the Permian — 252 million years ago. Now, we enjoy their beauty and the scientific mysteries they reveal about our Earth's ancient history.
Photos and collection of the deeply awesome David Appleton. Specimen: 5.3 cm.
Friday, 9 May 2025
FOSSILS OF HORNBY ISLAND
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Diplomoceras sp. |
Wednesday, 30 April 2025
FOSSILS OF CANADA'S EASTERN SHORES
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Pennsylvanian Coal Age Ecosystem, 300-Million-Years-Old |
References & further reading:
Joggins Fossil Cliffs: https://jogginsfossilcliffs.net/cliffs/history/
Image: Hylonomus lyelli, Una ricostruzione di ilonomo by Matteo De Stefano/MUSEThis file was uploaded by MUSE - Science Museum of Trento in cooperation with Wikimedia Italia., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48143186
Image: Arthropleura: Par Tim Bertelink — Travail personnel, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48915156
Joggins Map: Joggins Fossil Cliffs: https://jogginsfossilcliffs.net/cliffs/history/
Tuesday, 29 April 2025
LOTUS FLOWER FRUIT
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Lotus Flower Fruit, Nelumbo |
The awesome possums from GRS are based out of North Logan, Utah, USA and have unearthed some world-class specimens. They've found Nelumbo leaves over the years but this is their first fossil specimen of the fruit.
And what a specimen it is! The spectacularly preserved fruit measures 6-1/2" round. Here you can see both the part and counterpart in fine detail. Doug Miller of Green River Stone sent copies to me this past summer and a copy to the deeply awesome Kirk Johnson, resident palaeontologist over at the Smithsonian Institute, to confirm the identification.
There is another spectacular specimen from Fossil Butte National Monument. They shared photos of a Nelumbo just yesterday. Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants in the order Proteales found living in freshwater ponds. You'll recognize them as the emblem of India, Vietnam and many wellness centres.
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Nelumbo Fruit, Green River Formation |
In the older classification systems, it was recognized under the biological order Nymphaeales or Nelumbonales. Nelumbo is currently recognized as the only living genus in Nelumbonaceae, one of several distinctive families in the eudicot order of the Proteales. Its closest living relatives, the (Proteaceae and Platanaceae), are shrubs or trees.
Interestingly, these lovelies can thermoregulate, producing heat. Nelumbo uses the alternative oxidase pathway (AOX) to exchange electrons. Instead of using the typical cytochrome complex pathway most plants use to power mitochondria, they instead use their cyanide-resistant alternative.
This is perhaps to generate a wee bit more scent in their blooms and attract more pollinators. The use of this thermogenic feature would have also allowed thermo-sensitive pollinators to seek out the plants at night and possibly use the cover of darkness to linger and mate.
So they functioned a bit little like a romantic evening meeting spot for lovers and a wee bit like the scent diffuser in your home. This lovely has an old lineage with fossil species in Eurasia and North America going back to the Cretaceous and represented in the Paleogene and Neogene. Photo Two: Doug Miller of Green River Stone Company
Tuesday, 15 April 2025
15TH BCPA SYMPOSIUM, COURTENAY: AUG 22-25, 2025
- Friday, August 22nd at the Courtenay and District Museum and Paleontological Centre, 207 - 4th Street, Courtenay, British Columbia including a Museum Tour with Pat Trask
- Saturday, August 23rd, 6 PM - 9:30 PM at the Florence Filberg Centre featuring Ray Troll as the Dinner Speaker
- Saturday, August 23rd, 9 AM - 4:30 PM
- Sunday, August 24th, 9 AM to 12:30 PM
- All presentations and poster sessions are at the Florence Filberg Centre at 411 Anderton Avenue in downtown Courtenay, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The Florence Filberg Centre is 1/2 block from the Courtenay Museum, close to shops and restaurants
- Friday, August 22nd: Shelter Point
- Sunday, August 24th: Trent River
- Monday, August 25th: Hornby Island, Collishaw Point
- Sunday, August 25, 2025, 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM: Fossil Preparation Workshop with James Wood, Jay Hawley and Dan Bowen
Friday, 11 April 2025
ANCIENT ORNAMENTS OF THE SEA: FOSSIL PEARL
A simple search will show you a vast array of pearls being used for their ornamental value in cultures from all over the world. I suppose the best answer to why they are appealing is just that they are.
If you make your way to Paris, France and happen to visit the Louvre's Persian Gallery, do take a boo at one of the oldest pearl necklaces in existence — the Susa necklace. It hails from a 2,400-year-old tomb of long lost Syrian Queen. It is a showy piece with three rows of 72 pearls per strand strung upon a bronze wire.
A queen who truly knew how to accessorize.
I imagine her putting the final touches of her outfit together, donning the pearls and making an entrance to wow the elite of ancient Damascus. The workmanship is superb, intermixing pure gold to offset the lustre of the pearls. It is precious and ancient, crafted one to two hundred years before Christ. Perhaps a gift from an Egyptian Pharaoh or from one of the Sumerians, Eblaites, Akkadians, Assyrians, Hittites, Hurrians, Mitanni, Amorites or Babylonian dignitaries who sued for peace but brought war instead.
Questions, good questions, but questions without answers. So, what can we say of pearls? We do know what they are and it is not glamorous. Pearls form in shelled molluscs when a wee bit of sand or some other irritant gets trapped inside the shell, injuring the flesh. As a defensive and self-healing tactic, the mollusc wraps it in layer upon layer of mother-of-pearl — that glorious shiny nacre that forms pearls.
They come in all shapes and sizes from minute to a massive 32 kilograms or 70 pounds. While a wide variety of our mollusc friends respond to injury or irritation by coating the offending intruder with nacre, there are only a few who make the truly gem-y pearls.These are the marine pearl oysters, Pteriidae and a few freshwater mussels. Aside from Pteriidae and freshwater mussels, we sometimes find less gem-y pearls inside conchs, scallops, clams, abalone, giant clams and large marine gastropods.
Pearls are made up mostly of the carbonate mineral aragonite, a polymorphous mineral — the same chemical formula but different crystal structure — to calcite and vaterite, sometimes called mu-calcium carbonate. These polymorphous carbonates are a bit like Mexican food where it is the same ingredients mixed in different ways. Visually, they are easy to tell apart — vaterite has a hexagonal crystal system, calcite is trigonal and aragonite is orthorhombic.
As pearls fossilize, the aragonite usually gets replaced by calcite, though sometimes by vaterite or another mineral. When we are very lucky, that aragonite is preserved with its nacreous lustre — that shimmery mother-of-pearl we know and love.
Molluscs have likely been making pearls since they first evolved 530 million years ago. The oldest known fossil pearls found to date, however, are 230-210 million years old.
This was the time when our world's landmass was concentrated into the C-shaped supercontinent of Pangaea and the first dinosaurs were calling it home. In the giant ancient ocean of Panthalassa, ecosystems were recovering from the high carbon dioxide levels that fueled the Permian extinction. Death begets life. With 95% of marine life wiped out, new species evolved to fill each niche.
While this is where we found the oldest pearl on record, I suspect we will one day find one much older and hopefully with its lovely great-great grandmother-of-pearl intact.
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
DANGEROUS BEDFELLOWS: ANGLERFISH
The wee candle you see on her forehead is a photophore, a tiny bit of luminous dorsal spine. Many of our sea dwellers have these candle-like bits illuminating the depths. You may have noticed them glowing around the eyes of many of our cephalopod friends.
In anglerfish' world, this swaying light is dead sexy. It's an adaptation used to attract prey and mates alike.
Deep in the murky depths of the Atlantic and Antarctic oceans, hopeful female anglerfish light up their sexy lures. When a male latches onto this tasty bit of flesh, he fuses himself totally. He might be one of several potential mates. She's not picky, just hungry. Lure. Feed. Mate. Repeat.
A friend asked if anglerfish mate for life. Well, yes.... yes, indeed they do.
Mating is a tough business down in the depths. Her body absorbs all the yummy nutrients of his body over time until all that's left are his testes. While unusual, it is only one of many weird and whacky ways our fishy friends communicate, entice, hunt and creatively survive and thrive. The deepest, darkest part of the ocean isn't empty — its hungry.
The evolution of fish began about 530 million years ago with the first fish lineages belonging to the Agnatha, a superclass of jawless fish. We still see them in our waters as cyclostomes but have lost the conodonts and ostracoderms to the annals of time. Like all vertebrates, fish have bilateral symmetry; when divided down the middle or central axis, each half is the same. Organisms with bilateral symmetry are generally more agile, making finding a mate, hunting or avoiding being hunted a whole lot easier.
When we envision fish, we generally picture large eyes, gills, a well-developed mouth. The earliest animals that we classify as fish appeared as soft-bodied chordates who lacked a true spine. While they were spineless, they did have notochords, a cartilaginous skeletal rod that gave them more dexterity than the cold-blooded invertebrates who shared those ancient seas and evolved without a backbone.
Fish in general respire using gills, are most often covered with bony scales and propel themselves using fins. There are two main types of fins, median fins and paired fins. The median fins include the caudal fin or tail fin, the dorsal fin, and the anal fin. Now there may be more than one dorsal, and one anal fin in some fishes.
The paired fins include the pectoral fins and the pelvic fins. And these paired fins are connected to, and supported by, pectoral and pelvic girdles, at the shoulder and hip; in the same way, our arms and legs are connected to and supported by, pectoral and pelvic girdles. This arrangement is something we inherited from the ancestors we share with fish. They are homologous structures.
When we speak of early vertebrates, we are often talking about fish. Fish is a term we use a lot in our everyday lives but taxonomically it is not all that useful. When we say, fish we generally mean an ectothermic, aquatic vertebrate with gills and fins.
Fortunately, many of our fishy friends have ended up in the fossil record. We may see some of the soft bits from time to time, as in the lovely fossil fish found in concretion in Brazil, but we often see fish skeletons. Vertebrates with hard skeletons had a much better chance of being preserved.
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Eohiodon Fish, McAbee Fossil Beds |
There are fragments of bone-like tissues from as early as the Late Cambrian with the oldest fossils that are truly recognizable as fishes come from the Middle Ordovician from North America, South America and Australia. At the time, South America and Australia were part of a supercontinent called Gondwana. North America was part of another supercontinent called Laurentia and the two were separated by deep oceans.
These two supercontinents and others that were also present were partially covered by shallow equatorial seas and the continents themselves were barren and rocky. Land plants didn't evolve until later in the Silurian Period. In these shallow equatorial seas, a large diverse and widespread group of armoured, jawless fishes evolved: the Pteraspidomorphi. The first of our three groups of ostracoderms. The Pteraspidomorphi are divided into three major groups: the Astraspida, Arandaspida and the Heterostraci.
The oldest and most primitive pteraspidomorphs were the Astraspida and the Arandaspida. You'll notice that all three of these taxon names contain 'aspid', which means shield. This is because these early fishes — and many of the Pteraspidomorphi — possessed large plates of dermal bone at the anterior end of their bodies. This dermal armour was very common in early vertebrates, but it was lost in their descendants.
Monday, 7 April 2025
FOSSIL FISHAPODS OF CANADA'S FAR NORTH
Qikiqtania wakei, a fishapod & relative to tetrapods |
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.
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Qikiqtania (pronounced kick-kick-TAN-ee-ya) |
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.
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Aerial View of Ellesmere Island |
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:
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.
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!
Saturday, 29 March 2025
BUMBLEBEES, FOSSILS AND FIRST NATIONS
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.
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
KING OF THE TRILOBITES: UNEARTHING ISOTELUS REX
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Isotelus rex, the King of Trilobites |
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
Monday, 24 March 2025
BURGESS SHALE FOSSILS: A DEEP TIME JOURNEY IN YOHO NATIONAL PARK
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