FOSSIL HUNTRESS

We can trace the lineage of barnacles back to the Middle Cambrian. That is half a billion years of data to sift through.  If you divide that...

Barnacles All Closed Up One of the most interesting and enigmatic little critters we find at the seashore are barnacles.  They cling to ...

Look deep into the knowing eye of this magnificent one. He is a Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae,  a species of baleen whale for whom...

Nootka Fossil Field Trip. Photo: John Fam The rugged west coast of Vancouver Island offers spectacular views of a wild British Columbia. Her...

Deep inside the largest and deepest gold mine in North America scientists are looking for dark matter particles and neutrinos instead of...

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...

Steller's Jay, Cyanocitta stelleri One of the classic Vancouver Island fossil localities is the Santonian-Maastrichtian, Upper Creta...

Welcome to the world of bees. This fuzzy yellow and black striped fellow is a bumblebee in the genus  Bombus sp.,  family Apidae. We know hi...

Fossils from the Okanagan Highlands, an area centred in the Interior of British Columbia, provide important clues to our ancient climate.  O...

Ammonites, like this gorgeous spiny heteromorph, were prolific breeders that evolved rapidly. If you could cast a fishing line into our anci...

This little cutie is a hermit crab and he is wearing a temporary home borrowed from one of our mollusc friends.  His body is a soft, squishy...

Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the order Xiphosura — a slowly evolving, conservative taxa. Much like (slow) Wat...

Cannibalistic Comb Jellies This festive lantern looking lovely belongs to a group of invertebrates known as comb jellies. Comb jellies are n...

Misty shores, moss covered forests, a rich cultural history, dappled light, fossils and the smell of salt air—these are my memories of Haida...

Young Gray Whale, Eschrichtius robustus The lovely fellow you see here is a young Gray Whale, Eschrichtius robustus , with a wee dusting...

The beauties you see here are ichthyosaurs. The largest of their lineage is the genus Shonisaurus who ruled our ancient seas 217 million y...

This big beastie is a superb specimen of the ammonite Lobolytoceras costellatum showing the intricate fractal pattern of its septa.  This l...