DOUVELLICERAS SPINIFERUM

Douvelliceras spiniferum, Cretaceous Haida Formation

Haida Gwaii or the Queen Charlotte Islands lay at the western edge of the continental shelf due west of the central coast of British Columbia. They form Wrangellia, an exotic tectonostratigraphic terrane that includes Vancouver Island, parts western British Columbia and Alaska.

The Geological Survey of Canada sponsored many expeditions to these remote islands and has produced numerous reference papers on this magnificent terrain, exploring both the geology and paleontology of the area.

Joseph Whiteaves, the GSC 's chief palaeontologist in Ottawa, published a paper in 1876 describing the Jurassic and Cretaceous faunas of Skidegate Inlet, furthering his reputation globally as both a geologist and paleontologist.

The praise was well-earned and foreshadowed his significant contributions to come. Sixteen years later, he wrote up and published his observations on a strange Mount Stephen fossil that resembled a kind of headless shrimp with poorly preserved appendages. Because of the unusual pointed shape of the supposed ventral appendages and the position of the spines near the posterior of the animal, Whiteaves named it Anomalocaris canadensis. The genus name "Anomalocaris" meant "unlike other shrimps" and the species name "canadensis" referred to the country of origin.

Whiteaves work on the paleontology of the Queen Charlotte Island provided us with excellent reference tools, particularly his work on the Cretaceous exposures and fauna that can be found there.

One of our fossil field trips was to the ruggedly beautiful Cretaceous exposures of Lina Island. We’d planned this trip as part of our “trips of a lifetime.” Both John Fam and Dan Bowen can be congratulated for their efforts in researching the area and ably coordinating a warm welcome by the First Nations community and organizing fossil field trips to some of the most amazing fossil localities in the Pacific Northwest. With great sandstone beach exposures, the fossil-rich (Albian to Cenomanian) Haida formation provided ample specimens, some directly in the bedding planes and many in concretion. Many of the concretions contained multiple specimens of typical Haida Formation fauna, providing a window into this Cretaceous landscape.

It is always interesting to see who was making a living and co-existing in our ancient oceans at the time these fossils were laid down. We found multiple beautifully preserved specimens of the spiny ammonite, Douvelleiceras spiniferum along with Brewericeras hulenense, Cleoniceras perezianum and many cycads in concretion.

Pictured above is Douvilleiceras spiniferum with his naturally occurring black, shiny appearance. Danna Straaf had recently asked me what my favourite cephalopod is, and I have to say that it is a hard choice but this fellow is in the top three. He is 6 inches long and 5 inches deep, and a beautiful example of the species.

SQUID EMPIRE: DANNA STAAF

Caught up with the Awesome Danna Staaf, "Cephalopodiatrist," today. If you haven’t picked up a copy of the infinitely readable, “Squid Empire,” please do! It’s an epic adventure through our primordial oceans, delightfully showcasing the rise & fall of the cephalopods as they moved from being the ocean’s top predator to its most delicious snack.

You’ll love Danna’s engaging writing style. I’m not the only one who thinks it’s awesome. It was named one of the best science books of 2017 by NPR. She writes about science with a particular penchant for marine biology along with science fiction and fantasy. Sometimes for grown-ups and sometimes for kids. She also makes art, including technical illustrations, comic strips, calligraphy, and origami -- and gives fabulous talks!

Danna & I were colleagues of a sort years ago. We both wrote for Science 2.0 and waxed poetic about all things squidy, cephie and paleo. She's become a mother since then and was up at UBC giving a talk at the Beatty Museum in Vancouver with her hubby. She's back in Vancouver in April 2020 for a talk. Once I have details, I'll post them here. Enjoy!

Here's her deliciously geeky site: http://www.cephalopodiatrist.com/p/home.html

GRAND PRISMATIC SPRING

Aptly named, Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park is the largest hot spring in the United States (and one of the loveliest) and the third largest in the world. The rich yellow, red, orange, green and blue coloring you see here is the result of microbial mats of bacteria and archaea.

While a whole host of thermophilic (heat-loving) microorganisms are responsible, it is the cyanobacteria, one of the more common fellows from this group, which form most of the scum. Cyanobacteria grow together in huge colonies (bacterial mats) that form the delightfully colourful slimes and scum on the perimeter of hot springs. You can tell a fair bit about the water temperature and chemistry just by looking at the colour of the pools. The coloring shifts dependant upon the ratio of carotenoids to chlorophyll and ambient temperature. We see more orange and red in the summer and the colder temperature of late Fall and Winter bring more green to the coloring.

SYMBIOTIC SLOTHS

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 are microscopic, plant-like organisms. The term is used to describe any of a large, heterogeneous group of prokaryotic, principally photosynthetic organisms. These little oxygenic (oxygen-producing) fellows appeared 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 the 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 are long and coarse with grooves that help foster algal growth. They soak up water readily and make for the perfect habitat for algae, moths, beetles fungi and even cockroaches.

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.

AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFRICANUS

Two views of a natural endocranial cast articulated with a fragmentary skull of Australopithecus africanus, an early hominid living between 2-3 million years ago in the late Pliocene and into the early Pleistocene -- and the first pre-human to be discovered. They shared many characteristics with their older relatives the Australopithecus afarensis including a more gracile body. The casts you see here show the left maxilla, the orbital area and most of the skull base. Australopithecus africanus had a larger brain and more humanoid facial features than their older ancestors with an average endocranial volume of 485 cm3 (29.6 cu in). This specimen is TM 1511 and lives in the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, in Pretoria, South Africa. Prior to a closer look by researchers, the skull was incorrectly believed to be a separate species, Plesianthropus transvaalensis. It was first discovered in South Africa by G. W. Barlow and described by Robert Broom in 1938. Photo credit: José Braga and Didier Descouens.

OPHTHALMOPLAX BRASILIANA

Ophthalmoplax brasiliana  / Photo: José F. Ventura‎

Ventral view of the carnivorous portunoid crab Ophthalmoplax brasiliana (Maury, 1930) from the latest Maastrichtian (~66.2 Ma.) deposits near Coahuila, northern Mexico.

This marine species was originally thought to have been found only in the upper Member (Owl Creek Formation) Late/Upper Maastrichtian deposits of Tippah County in Mississippi, USA. 

Sohl and Koch published on the Mississippian finds in the USGS in 1983. Fedorov and Nyborg published on this same species again in 2017. Paleocoordinates: (34.8° N, 88.9° W: 38.3° N, 66.2° W)

TETRALOPHODON OF ANANCIDAE

Quintus Sertorius, a Roman statesman come general, grew up in Umbria, the green heart of what is now central Italy. Born into a world at war just two years before the Romans sacked Corinth to bring Greece under Roman rule, Quintus lived much of his life as a military man far from the hills, mountains, and valleys of his birthplace.

In 81 BC, he traveled to Morocco, the land of opium, massive trilobites and the birthplace of Antaeus, the legendary North African ogre who was killed by the Greek hero Heracles.

The locals tell a tale that Quintus requested proof of Antaeus, hard evidence he could bring back to Rome to support their tales. They took him to a mound at Tingis, Morocco, where they unearthed the bones of a Neogene elephant, Tetralophodon, an extinct elephantoid belonging to the family Anancidae. During the Miocene and Pliocene, 12-1.6 million years ago, this diverse group of extinct proboscidean elephant-like lived in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Most of these large beasts had four tusks and likely a trunk similar to modern elephants. They were creatures of legend, inspiring myths and stories of fanciful creatures to the first humans to encounter them. Tetralophodon bones are large and skeletons singularly impressive. Impressive enough to be taken for something else entirely. By all accounts these proboscidean remains were that of the mythical ogre Antaeus and were thus reported back to Rome as such. It was hundreds of years before their true heritage was known.

I was lucky enough to travel to Morocco a many years ago and see the Tetralophodon remains. At the time, the tales of Antaeus ran through my mind. Could this be the proof that Quintus wanted. I believe it was. Pictured above are the fossil skull and tusks of T. longirostris, from Ballestar, Spain at the Museu Geològic del Seminari de Barcelona, Barcelona. Photo credit: Jordiferrer - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20028047

MCABEE FOSSIL BEDS

Eocene Fossil Feather / McAbee Fossil Beds

The McAbee fossil beds are known for their incredible abundance, diversity and quality of fossils including lovely plant, insect and fish species that lived in an old lake bed setting 52 million years ago.

I was sharing with some friends, Lawrence and Shivinder (hello you two!) about the site earlier this evening. It is one of the best local sites in the province to experience a fossil dig first-hand. 

It is an easy 4-hour drive from Vancouver and easily done as a day trip. The site was designated a Provincial Heritage Site under British Columbia's Heritage Conservation Act in July of 2012, then promptly closed to the public.

It has recently been reopened to public collecting (as of June 21, 2019), with plans to build out a visitor's centre and educational programs. The Province is committed to providing access to the site to scientists and the lay public. The direction on what happens next at McAbee is being driven by the Heritage Branch in consultation with members of the Shuswap Nation and Bonaparte Band. Bonaparte traditional territory is located within the Shuswap Nation and includes the area known as McAbee.

Local members of the Bonaparte Band are Secwepemc. They want to share the spiritual significance of the area from a First Nations perspective and see McAbee as an indigenous tourism destination. So it looks like it will be palaeontology, archaeology with a cultural focus to add spice. In any case, the collection of fossils will continue with oversight to ensure significant fossil finds make their way to science.

While the area is referred to as the Okanagan, the term is used in a slightly misleading fashion to describe an arc of Eocene lakebed sites that extend from Smithers in the north, down to the fossil site of Republic Washington, in the south. The grouping includes the fossil sites of Driftwood Canyon, Quilchena, Allenby, Tranquille, McAbee, Princeton and Republic.

Fossils from the Okanagan Highlands, an area centred in the Interior of British Columbia, provide important clues to our ancient climate. The fossils range in age from the Early to Middle Eocene. McAbee had a more temperate climate, slightly cooler and wetter than other Eocene sites to the south at Princeton, British Columbia, Republic in north-central Washington, in the Swauk Formation near Skykomish and the Chuckanut Formation of northern Washington state.

The McAbee fossil beds consist of 30 metres of fossiliferous shale in the Eocene Kamloops Group.
The fossils are preserved here as impressions and carbonaceous films. We see gymnosperm (16 species); a variety of conifers (14 species to my knowledge); two species of ginkgo, a large variety of angiosperm (67 species); a variety of insects and fish remains, the rare feather and a boatload of mashed deciduous material. Nuts and cupules are also found from the dicotyledonous Fagus and Ulmus and members of the Betulaceae, including Betula and Alnus.

We see many species that look very similar to those growing in the Pacific Northwest today. Specifically, cypress, dawn redwood, fir, spruce, pine, larch, hemlock, alder, birch, dogwood, beech, sassafras, cottonwood, maple, elm and grape. If we look at the pollen data, we see over a hundred highly probable species from the site. Though rare, McAbee has also produced spiders, birds (and lovely individual feathers) along with multiple specimens of the freshwater crayfish, Aenigmastacus crandalli.

For insects, we see dragonflies, damselflies, cockroaches, termites, earwigs, aphids, leaf hoppers, spittlebugs, lacewings, a variety of beetles, gnats, ants, hornets, stick insects, water striders, weevils, wasps and March flies. The insects are particularly well-preserved. Missing are the tropical Sabal (palm), seen at Princeton and the impressive Ensete (banana) and Zamiaceae (cycad) found at Eocene sites in Republic and Chuckanut, Washington.

My first trips up there were as a teenager, dragging my mother, sister and pretty near anyone else I could convince to hike up. This was in 1986-87, years before Dave Langevin and John Leahy, mineral rights/lease-holder and resident curator, respectively, began working at the site. I think Dave put in his mineral claim in 1991ish. 

Once they did a whole new world opened up with their efforts. Much of the overburden was removed and new exposures were revealed. John also used to leave a jeep at the base of the hill with a bit of gas in it that we'd hot wire and use to avoid the hike heading up and pack down fossils heading back. Good man, John. He was an avid collector and meticulous in his curation. Both of those gents have now passed and are sorely missed. Most of their personal collection is now in the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, British Columbia, and much of Dave is still at the site as his ashes were sprinkled there.

McAbee is located just east of Cache Creek, just north of and visible from Highway 1/97. 14.5 km to be exact and exactly the distance you need to drink one large coffee and then need a washroom. You'll be pleased to know they have installed one at the site. McAbee is a site for hiking boots, hand, head and eye protection. Keep yourself safe and well-hydrated.

As you drive up, you'll see telltale hoodoos on the ridge to let you know you've reached the right spot. If you have a GPS, pop in these coordinates and you're on your way. 50°47.831′N 121°8.469′W.

CRETE: DEINOTHERIUM GIGANTEUM

The islands of the Aegean are peaks of underwater mountains that extend out from the mainland. Crete is the last of this range and boasts a diverse beauty from its high mountains of Psiloritis, Lefka Ori, Dikti, to its ocean caressed pink sand beaches.

Much of the island of Crete is Miocene and filled with fossil mollusks, bivalves, gastropods who lived 5 to 23 million years ago in warm, tropical seas.

They are easily collected from their pink limestone matrix and are often eroded out, mixing with their modern relatives. Aside from the marine deposits, the island boasts some great vertebrate finds, including the remains of Deinotherium giganteum, a massive 8 million year old mammal and primitive relative of the elephants roaming the Earth today. Deinotherium evolved from the slightly smaller, early Miocene, Prodeinotherium, though both genera were much larger than all of the more primitive proboscideans.

With an enormous large nasal opening at the centre of his skull, presumably to house a rather largish trunk, Deinotherium may be the inspiration behind the myth of the Cyclops, the one-eyed giant from Homer's famous Odyssey. I'll share about some of the North African finds with you and you can judge for yourself. I think the resemblance is striking. The photo above is from the Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History in Bucharest, Romania. If you're in Romania, it's definitely a highlight. Photo credit: Flavius70 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22541962

HYPODICRANOTUS STRIATULUS OF ONTARIO

Hypodicranotus striatulus

Take a gander at this unusual trilobite, Hypodicranotus striatulus (Walcott, 1875), with his gloriously bulbous head shield. Missing from this specimen is the wonderful forked hypostome from the dorsal exoskeleton that marks him as H. striatulus.

He’s from outcrops in the Verulam Formation, Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. He lived in a deep subtidal environment as a nektobenthic deposit feeder some 460.9 to 449.5 million years ago.

These extinct pelagic trilobites are in the order Asaphida in the family Remopleuridae. Specimens have been found in Middle Ordovician marine outcrops from Ontario, Canada (this fellow is from here), the Northwest Territories, Quebec and in New York State, United States. Some of his sister taxa also in Remopleurididae (Hawle and Corda, 1847)  have been found in the Northwest Territories, Quebec, the UK and in Iowa, Wisconsin and Nevada. Collection of the awesome Marc R. Hänsel

DINOSAUR GEORGE PODCAST

Recently, I had the very great pleasure of chatting with the deeply awesome "Dinosaur George" Blasting for his Dinosaur George Podcast. We talked about fossil sites of the Pacific Northwest, what's cool in paleontology, new fossil discoveries, finds that have made me cry and hunting ammonites (while getting shot at) in Alberta, Canada.

George is the host of the Dinosaur George Podcast. And, as one might expect, it is devoted entirely to paleontology and the natural sciences. In each episode, he and a guest explore what paleontologists do, what area of research or discovery lights them up, how they know what kind of fossil they have found and share personal stories from the field. If you're interested in learning more about paleontology, I highly recommend it.

Dinosaur George interviews some of the most interesting cats in paleo. Evolutionary Biologist, Dr. Devin O'Brien was on recently talking about canine teeth of our beloved saber-tooth-cat, Smilodon. Paleo-artist, Eric Warren shared about his craft which is a mix of science with pure-hearted creativity, and Dr. Dave Hone waxed poetic about pterosaurs. The podcast promises a veritable who's who in paleontology eager to share their love of fossils, along with stories of their very best and very worst days in the field.

Give it a listen. I'm hugely biased (we love George) but I'm not alone. The Dinosaur George Podcast just made the Top 5 Podcasts of all time. I'll pop a live link here: http://www.dinosaurgeorgepodcast.com/

CRETACEOUS TERRESTRIAL TURTLE

A beautifully articulated Basilemys hand with osteoderms on the palmar surface. This specimen is from outcrops in the Kaiparowits Formation of Utah, USA. Basilemys is an extinct genus of terrestrial (land) turtle belonging to the family Nanhsiungchelyideae.

These ectotherms (cold-blooded) reptiles were amniotes -- they breathed air and did not lay eggs underwater but came to shore similar to modern turtles. They are known from Cretaceous deposits in North America and Asia.

Fossil remains of Basilemys have been found in Alberta, Saskatchewan, China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Mongolia, the United States in California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wyoming and Uzbekistan from 144 collections and 152 occurrences. Photo credit: Joe Sertich

OLENELLUS OF THE KINZERS

Olenellus getzi, Kinzers Formation

A beautiful Lower Cambrian trilobite, Olenellus getzi, found in the 520 million years shales of the Kinzers Formation, Getz Woods, Pennsylvania.

The locality is plentiful. It was this same locality where we recently found a new species of edrioasteroid, Protoaster Haefneri, named after Chris Haefner.

The site has also produced two massive complete Anomalocarid (six and eight inches in length; one a new species); a new species of brown algae, over a hundred specimens of the cupcake-looking echinoderm, Camptostroma roddyi, upwards of four hundred Olenellus trilobites and forty complete Wannerias. Specimen and photo: Marc R. Hänsel