ELEPHAS STEGODON ANACUS

ORNITHOLOGIE

WEST COAST MEMORIES

WEE FOSSIL BEAVER

This wee skull of a Microtheriomys brevirhinus from the John Day Formation is an adorable 19 mm. Yeah, he's pretty cute!

Paleontologists Dr William Korth of Rochester Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Dr Joshua Samuels of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument are pretty chuffed about some new fossil finds. They have described four new genera and ten new species of prehistoric rodents that lived in what is now Oregon during the Oligocene -- 30- 22 million years ago.

The newly-discovered genera include this wee fellow, the early beaver, Microtheriomys brevirhinus, a dwarf tree squirrel, Miosciurus covensis, a primitive pocket mouse, Bursagnathus aterosseusm the birch mouse Plesiosminthus fremdi, an early relative of beavers, Allotypomys pictus along with bits and pieces of Proapeomys condoni; Apeomys whistleri; Neoadjidaumo arctozophus, Proheteromys latidens & Trogomys oregonensis.

Of these ten new species, four represent completely new genera: Allotypomys, Microtheriomys, Proapeomys, and Bursagnathus.

“This study fills some substantial gaps in our knowledge of past faunas, specifically smaller mammals,” said Dr Samuels, who is a co-author of the paper published in the Annals of Carnegie Museum. “Some of the new species are really interesting in their own right, and will ultimately help improve our understanding of the evolution of beavers and pocket mice.” The new rodents were collected through decades of collaborative work throughout the John Day Formation, Oregon.

WOOLLY MAMMOTH

Mammutus primigenius. Pleistocene. Siberia, Russia

RADIOLARIA: EXQUISITE MICROFOSSILS

Radiolarian microfossils, tiny, siliceous, single-celled organisms, make for excellent timekeepers. Think of them as the world's smallest clocks. These wee fellows have been living in the world’s oceans for over 600 million years.

Radiolarians are unicellulars, wee little things with a diameter of 0.1–0.2 mm.

They produce intricate mineral skeletons, typically with a central capsule dividing the cell into the inner and outer portions of endoplasm and ectoplasm.Their beautifully elaborate mineral skeletons are usually made of silica. We find radiolaria as zooplankton throughout the ocean and their skeletal remains make up a large part of the cover of the ocean floor as siliceous ooze.

Due to their rapid turnover of species, they represent an important diagnostic fossil from the Cambrian onwards. Because they occur in continuous and well-dated sequences of rock, they act like a yardstick, helping geologists accurately date rock from around the globe.

In the Upper Triassic rocks, which predate the Triassic / Jurassic Mass Extinction event by about 10 million years, radiolarians are preserved in hundreds of forms. Just above them, in the early Jurassic rock layers laid down about the time of the great die-offs, only a fraction of the previous number of forms are represented. The more recent Jurassic rock shows a rebound of radiolarian diversity, though of course, in different forms, a diversity which continues to flourish and expand in today’s oceans.

NOLEGGIO DI BARCHE

Noleggio de Marche, Riomaggiore, Italy

TRAPPER CABIN: BOWRON LAKE CIRCUIT

POLYPLACOPHORA: CHITON AND SEAWEED

SHIPS A'HOY

MAMMUTUS PRIMIGENIUS

Mammutus primigenius. Pleistocene. Siberia, Russia

MAMMA MOOSE, BABY MOOSE... GRIZZLY

THE BURGESS SHALE

The fine-grained shales that make up the Burgess were once part of the ancient landmass known as Laurentia, the ancient geologic core of the North American continent, and are home to some of the most diverse and well-preserved fossils in the world.

The sedimentary shales here contain fossils that open a window to marine life some 508 million years ago and include such weird and wonderful species like Anomalocaris and Hallucigenia.

WONDERS OF NATURE

HOPSCOTCH: HORNBY ISLAND

GOAT: CAPRA AEGAGRUS HIRCUS

 

ANDALUSIAN ARCHITECTURE

STAWAMUS CHIEF: GRANITE SENTINEL

The Stawamus Chief, the second largest freestanding piece of granite in the world, has made Squamish one of the top rock climbing destinations in North America. 

This magestic peak is said to have been one of the last areas of dry ground during a time of tremendous flooding in the Squamish area.

Many cultures have a flood myth in their oral history and the Coast Salish people of Squamish are no exception. They tell of a time when all the world save the highest peaks were submerged and only one of their nation survived. Warned in a vision, a warrior of the Squamish nation escaped to safety atop Mount Chuckigh (Mount Garibaldi) as the waters rose.

After the flood, a magestic eagle came to him with a gift of salmon to tell him that the world below was again hospitable and ready for his return. He climbed down the mountain and returned to find his village covered by a layer of silt.

All his people had perished, but the gods gave him another gift, a second survivor of the flood, a beautiful woman who became his wife. For their gift of generosity they had shown, the couple took the eagle as their chief totem and have honored it through generations of Coast Salish people.

CASTLE PEAK: FOSSIL FIELD TRIP

DINOSAUR TRACKWAY: TUMBLER RIDGE