TERRESTRIAL TREASURE

AVIGNON: ROMAN ARCHAEOLOGY

MARINE BEAUTIES FROM JURASSIC SEAS

A surprisingly warm sunny morning sparked a return trip to the Cretaceous-Jurassic exposures near Harrison Lake, British Columbia. The lake and hotsprings at Harrison are an easy one to two hour drive from Vancouver. My work leads me a ways past the town exploring logging roads along the lake.

Without goggles you could easily lose an eye working the unyielding siltstones. Much of my collecting was spent wincing as small, bullet-like projectiles went pinging past my face… others making contact but not enough to deter my efforts. No pain no gain.

After a few hours of work I've done pretty well. Looking down at my pack I'd managed to unearth a fine selection of ammonites of the Callovian Mysterious Creek Formation, including the small, fairly well preserved Cadoceras (Paracadoceras) tonniense and smallish Cadoceras (Pseudocadoceras) grewingki. The other bits and pieces were mostly fragments but included one relatively complete specimen of the larger, smooth Cadoceras comma and some perfectly preserved belemnites, cigar-looking numbers from ancient squid. For interest, I've popped in an image of an ammonite from Fernie. I'll post one of the ones from Harrison when I did out my digital.

Interestingly, the ammonites from here are quite similar to the ones found within the lower part of the Chinitna Formation, Alaska and Jurassic Point, Kyuquot, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I'll have to write up the trip I did with the VIPS to Kyuquot a few years back. We enjoyed fantastic scenery and wild west coast adventures. I'd like it on record that that was not the trip the coast guard had to be called, but it remains memorable from the great company, fantastic fossils and the fact that my car was stolen at some point. Ah, living.

The siltstone here at Harrison has also offered up a small section of vertebra from a poorly preserved marine reptile, a find I'm rather keen to make one day. So, after much hammer swinging, I've enjoyed a splendid day, collected beautiful specimens and feel a wee bit closer to the big find. Returning like a soldier from battle, I carefully package and log my booty, returning home the happier for it.

I'll be heading back to the fossil beds of the Myseterious Creek Formation at Harrison on Monday, May 18, 2009, as part of a fossil field trip for the 2009 BC Paleontological Symposium. If you're about, feel free to pop by and say hello. I drive the big black tank, and yes, it's alarmed!

BOWRON LAKE PORTAGE

505-MILLION YEAR OLD MYSTERY SOLVED

Scientists from Sweden’s Uppsala University have pieced together a bizarre marine predator who trolled the seas some 505-million years ago. Hurdia, an extinct species of anomalocaridid, had a giant head, protruding hollow spike-shaped head shield and spiny claws for capturing prey. They look to have made a living swimming in the water column clawing around for prey to scoop into their tube shaped mouths. They lived at the time of trilobites, tuzoia and other soft-bodied marine creatures long extinct.

Bits and pieces of Hurdia have shown up in museums all over the world. Until now, much like their more robust cousin, Anomalocaris, they’ve been left unidentified or wildly mislabeled. Imagine Leggo clicked together sideways, upside down or split in two. Scientific papers have documented the many attempts at getting it right with respect to their body design.

Allison Daley, lead author on the study, is happy to set the record straight and will publish the groups findings in this month’s journal Science.

FOSSILS

THE CAMBRIAN: 570 MILLION YEARS AGO

The Cambrian was a time of expansion for the Earths more complex animal forms. Molluscs and arthropods or their friends with hard shells and exoskeletons dominated the seas. The photo is of a Wanneria dunnae from the Eager Formation, Rifle Range site near Cranbrook from a trip in 1990.

Cambrian Fossil Sites in Western Canada:

Tanglefoot and Eager Formation Trilobites, Mount Field Burgess Shale Soft-bodied marine critters and the fossils from the Mount Stephen Trilobite beds.

MAMMOTHS AND MASS EXTINCTION

Much ado about something - New evidence points to a celestial end for the wooly mammoth and many large mammals.

A swarm of comets that smacked North America 12,900 years ago wiped out the wooly mammoth and early Native American cultures, according to a soil study released Thursday.

The report in the journal Science focuses on tiny "nanodiamonds," crystals tied to past comet impacts, at six sites across the continent in a soil layer dated to the start of a 1,300-year-long ice age.

Geologists and archaeologists have long argued about what caused the extinction of dozens of large North American "megafauna" species, such as saber-toothed cats and mammoths. Was it environmental conditions, human intervention, competition for resources or a combination of factors? It seems a commet is to blame.

"What we're reporting is consistent with a major cosmic impact that had major consequences for the environment and Earth's climate," says study leader Douglas Kennett of the University of Oregon in Eugene.

"A swarm of comets" or carbon-rich meteorites either delivered or created the nanodiamonds in a fiery impact, the study suggests. The report relies on photomicrograph analyses of soil samples from Arizona, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and two Canadian sites. Photomicrography captures images seen through a microscope.

"This is the 'smoking gun' evidence for a massive impact event 12,900 years ago that triggered the (ice age) and the extinction of the megafauna," says nuclear scientist Richard Firestone of the Lawrence Berkeley (Calif.) National Laboratory, who was not part of the study.

If true, the impact date coincides with the abrupt halting of deposits of "Clovis" Native American artifacts, distinctively fluted tools and arrowheads. Dozens of large animal species vanished then in North America. Kennett and other impact researchers have suggested a continent-wide wildfire may have contributed to the extinction of large North American creatures. In Europe, there were disruptions to the prehistoric culture and the demise there of species such as the cave bear and Irish elk.

Some scientists urge caution.

"We simply do not have conclusive evidence that nanodiamond materials aren't everywhere at many times," says geologist Nicholas Pinter of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. "Tons of meteorite dust falls to Earth every year, after all."

Although more than 30 North American species died out about 12,900 years ago, about 50 large species died out a few centuries later in South America, and on some unpeopled Caribbean islands, species such as sloths survived an additional 6,000 years, says archaeologist Stuart Fiedel, author of Prehistory of the Americas. "Humans, not extraterrestrial objects," best explain the staggered extinctions in the New World, he says.

Kennett says future studies will show evidence of the nanodiamonds from Europe and further afield 12,900 years ago. Impact shock waves, debris and wildfires sparked by comets breaking apart in the atmosphere would have hit North America hardest, he says, but the effects would have been felt worldwide.

Fossil Mammals are the theme of the Eighth BC Paleontological Symposium being held at the University of British Columbia, May 14-18, 2009. Come and learn about the great mammals that roamed North America and hear the debates on their demise. Visit www.bcfossils.ca for more information

The story references an Irish Elk. A 12,000 year old specimen in the collections at UBC will be on display at the Symposium.

Ref: Dan Vergano

VOLCANIC DEMISE: THE TRIASSIC-JURASSIC EXTINCTION

Located as they are in Canada’s most active earthquake zone, the Queen Charlotte Islands have had their share of shake-ups and scourings. Many of the Islands’ hillsides are scarred by slides. But the rock beneath speaks of an even more violent past. Very few people know that the rock in the Queen Charlottes holds the key to a catastrophic event from eons ago.We’ve heard tales and seen images of the cataclysmic damage caused by meteriorites smashing into the Earth’s surface.

Until recently, it was a meteorite impact that was blamed for the worldwide Triassic/Jurassic Mass Extinction. This wholesale dying out of species occurred some 200 million years ago. New evidence challenges the meteorite theory. Experts now believe that tectonic forces may have caused hundreds of volcanoes around the world to erupt simultaneously. The subsequent showers of volcanic ash would have altered the composition of the atmosphere dramatically and plunged the world into near total darkness for years until it settled from the sky.

The picture painted of the sun flickering fitfully through inky clouds, paling against the torrents of glowing lava, while everywhere life is smothered, poisoned, or starved, rivals the most apocalyptic imaginings of Hollywood or religion. We know from worldwide evidence that the extinction was dramatic and affected upwards of 70% of the world’s biota.

Perhaps counterintuitively, for one might think of water as a refuge from fire, smoke, and lava, it was marine lifeforms that suffered the most. This is particularly well documented in the rocks of the Queen Charlottes, especially at Kennecott Point and Kunga Island.

Radiolarian microfossils – tiny, siliceous, single-celled microrganisms – tell the tale. In the Upper Triassic rocks, which predate the extinction 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.

Radiolarian microfossils – tiny, siliceous, single-celled organisms – tell the tale. These wee timekeepers have been living in the world’s oceans for about 600 million years. Because they occur in continuous and well-dated sequences of rock in the Queen Charlottes, these exquisitely beautiful microfossils act like a yardstick, helping geologists accurately date rock from around the globe.

In the Upper Triassic rocks, which predate the extinction 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 Queen Charlottes are most noted for their fossil ammonites, the coiled cousins to modern day nautilus. These perfectly preserved specimens tell of a deep water environment and warm tropical seas. The younger Jurassic rock shows a rebound of radiolarian diversity (though of course, in different forms) - a diversity that continues to flourish and expand in today’s oceans.

COASTAL WOLVES: GENETIC DIFFERENCES

Have you ever seen headless salmon littering the banks of rivers and streams during spawning season? Most who have generally blame our local bears for this selective dining. The real culprits are coastal wolves who gorge themselves on the nutrient-rich brains, leaving the rest to scavengers.

It seems this preference for fish and a redish tinge to their pelts set our local wolves apart. Coastal wolves, from Alaska and Vancouver Island, have not only adapted to their local environment but have evolved into something altogether new.

Think Darwin's finches.

Researchers from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation have published in this month's Journal of Biogeography, that our coastal wolves, "are like no other wolves." Well, we could have told them that, but no one listens until a paper gets published.

Grey wolves (Canis lupus), coastal wolves and our household pets (Canis lupus familiaris) share a common ancestry but at some point our coastal wolves have broken from the pack. With genetic differences that, "are striking and their ecology is very, very different."

So it seems everything old is new again.

CEDAR: LIFEBLOOD TO AN ISLAND

The arrival of cedar, called “Tsuuaay” by the Haida, had profound effects on the material culture of the Haida (Approx 4000 BC). Once they were able to build canoes to fish year round for local halibut, red snapper and ling cod and increased their access to sea mammals, they were granted a bit of freedom. They still enjoyed their relationship to the spawning cycle of the salmon but cedar gave them options. The cedar bent wood box, a genius idea in food conservation and storage, allowed them to store food for the winter. Often carved with exquisite detail, the cedar bent wood box became art, status and lifebood.

CARIBOO LIGHT

BOWRON LAKE CIRCUIT

VICIOUS MEAT-EATING HUNTER TRACKED TO AFRICA

While evidence of 95-million year old therapods from Africa is quite scare making one think that each fragment would be treated like gold, this was not the case the first evidence of Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, a newly described dinosaur from the Cenomanian of Nigeria and published in this months issue Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

This fellow almost had the misfortune of going extinct twice! Tooth fragments collected by Charles Depéret and J. Savornin in 1927 were misplaced before this meat-eater could ever be described and when additional material was collected in Egypt in the 1930’s it also came to an unfortunate end. Sent to German paleontologists in Munich to describe, the fossils were lost in the rubble as Allied Forces bombed the building in which they were housed during WW II.But the rocky history and luck of Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis improved when paleontologist in residence at National Geographic, Paul Sereno found cranial material on a Moroccan dig in 1996.

:: THE EVIDENCE MOUNTS...

That find combined with material collected the following year in Nigeria were studied by Sereno, along with Steve Brusatte, a paleobiologist at the University of Bristol in England, and Paul Sereno and determined to be a new species, not C. saharicus as originally thought. The massive skull, neck and bone fragments belonged to Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, one of the largest dinosaurs ever found. Carcharodontosaurus differs from C. saharicus, his smaller Saharan coursin, both in the maxilla and braincase.

Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis walked upright and was a massive beast, weighing in at an impressive 3.2 tons. Extending upwards of 14 meters (44 ft), nearly as long as Tyrannosaurs, alive today they could easily peer through a second story window - a menacing thought as they were well-equipped hunters with sizable teeth.The climate was much warmer when Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis and C. saharicus roamed the Earth and the seas much higher. Beyond geographic distance, the raised sea level may have been what set these therapods apart.
:: SHALLOW SEAS...

Shallow seas separated what is now Morocco and Nigeria and this separation may have prompted the development of the unique characteristics define the two species.. Perhaps more abundant prey and favorable conditions allowed Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis to grow to their huge size while C. saharicus remained a smallish 1.6 meters (5.2 ft). While not a reptile, C. saharicus has been compared with modern Crocodylia, another group who first appeared in the Cretaceous, as they share similar inner ear anatomy and cerebrum size relative to total brain.

Like many therapods prior to the 1930’s, the African species were originally misgrouped into the genus Megalosaurus. Paleontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach corrected this error. After taking a closer look at their anatomy, particularly their dentition, he renamed them Carcharodontosaurus in 1931 citeing their "mainly Carcharodon-like teeth", which were "not recurved, almost bilaterally symmetrical but with convex edges”

The Carcharodontosaurids were a group of gigantic carnivorous carcharodontosaurid dinosaurs that lived 98 to 93 million years ago. Carcharodontosaurus means 'shark lizard', after the shark genus Carcharodon, an apt handle as they were ominous killers with enormous jaws and long, serrated teeth, some as long as eight inches.

References:

Brusatte, S. and Sereno, P.C. (2005). "A new species of Carcharodontosaurus (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Cenomanian of Niger and its implications for allosauroid phylogeny." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 25: 40A.

Brusatte, S.L. and Sereno, P.C. (2007). "A new species of Carcharodontosaurus (dinosauria: theropoda) from the Cenomanian of Niger and a revision of the genus." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 27 (4).

Deparet, C. and Savornin, J. (1927). "Sur la decouverte d'une faune de vertebres albiens a Timimoun (Sahara occidental)." Comptes Rendus, Academie du Sciences, Paris, 181: 1108-1111.Larsson, H.C.E. (2001). "Endocranial anatomy of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus (Theropoda: Allosauroidea) and its implications for theropod brain evolution." Pp. 19-33 in D.H.

Tanke & K. Carpenter (eds.), Mesozoic Vertebrate Life. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Stromer, E. (1931). "Wirbeltiere-Reste der Baharijestufe (unterestes Canoman). Ein Skelett-Rest von Carcharodontosaurus nov. gen." Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Abteilung, 9(Neue Folge): 1–23.

KAYAKING LAKE ISAAC

GLOBAL WARMING: THE TROPICAL EOCENE

In 2004, a scientific crew braced the cold and the odds to extract a sediment core from 400m below the seabed of the Arctic Ocean. The core showed that Fifty-five million years ago, deep in the Eocene, the North Pole was ice-free and enjoying tropical temperatures. It also told us that the temperature of the ocean was 20C, instead of the coolish –1.5C we see today… a truth that is hard to imagine with all the hype around global warming.

The bottom end of that core helped explain the fossils found at Eocene sites around British Columbia, species commonly seen in more tropical environments today.

The warmer temperatures seen at McAbee and around the globe were recorded in the core sample and reveal evidence for a global event known at the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Back in the Eocene, a gigantic emission of greenhouse gases was released into the atmosphere and the global temperature warmed by about 5C.

While the bookends of the geologic time scale slide back and forth a wee bit, the current experts in the geologic community set the limits to be 33.9 +_ 0.1 to 55.8 +_ 0.2 million years ago. The fossil record tells us that this part of British Columbia and much of the Earth was significantly warmer around that time, so warm in fact that we find temperate and tropical plant fossils in areas that now sport plants that prefer much colder climes, or as is the case in the Arctic, snow and ice.

The Okanagan Highlands is an area centred in the Interior of British Columbia, but 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. The grouping includes the fossil sites of Driftwood Canyon, Quilchena, Allenby, Tranquille, McAbee, Princeton and Republic. These fossil sites range in time from Early to Middle Eocene, and the fossil they contain give us a snapshot of what was happening in this part of the world because of the varied plant fossils they contain..

While the area around the Interior of British Columbia was affected. McAbee was not as warm as some of the other Middle Eocene sites, a fact inferred by what we see and what is conspicuously missing.

In looking at the plant species, it has been suggested that the area of McAbee had a more temperate climate, slightly cooler and wetter than other Eocene sites to the south at Princeton, British Columbia and Republic and Chuckanut, Washington. Missing are the tropical Sabal (palm), seen at Princeton and the impressive Ensete (banana) and Zamiaceae (cycad) found at Republic and Chuckanut, Washington.

While we are the likely culprits of much of the warming of the Arctic today, natural processes operating in the not too distant past have also resulted in significant temperature fluxuations on a world-wide scale.

COY BOY AT THE DOG PARK: ANGUS

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

BUCHARESTI

The past few years, I've had occasion to travel to Bucharest, Romania for work. Each time I'm there, of course, there is always a great adventure to be had. I usually make my way to the city centre to visit their exquisite paleo museum and take care of a few things at the consulate.

This photo is from their central park which lines the greenbelt in the consultate district. Many times, I've walked through history entering this deceptively peaceful park that divided the population in their final push to free themselves from communism in 1989. Timing is everthing it seems, as I was also there to see the exchange between the Americans and Russians when Kosovo separated. Beautiful, delicious, cold and dangerous. Bucharest (Bucharesti) is quite a city.

HAIDA GWAII : ISLANDS OF THE MIST

The islands have gone by many names. To the people who call the islands home, Haida Gwaii means “island of the people,” it is a shortened version of an earlier name, Haadala Gwaii-ai, or “taken out of concealment.” Back at the time of Nangkilslas, it was called Didakwaa Gwaii, or “shoreward country.” 

By any name, the islands are a place of beauty and spirit and enjoy a special place in both the natural and supernatural world.

Haida oral history traces the lineage of their families back to the ocean’s origins. Spear points from Huxley Island confirm a date of between 12,500 - 13,500 years ago. Their stories bear witness to the last the ice age, great floods, changes in sea levels and the arrival of the first tree – each binding them closer to the land and sea and enriching our understanding of this special place.

The islands form part of Wrangellia, an exotic terrane that includes parts of western British Columbia, Vancouver Island and Alaska. Today, the mist-shrouded archipelago of Haida Gwaii is separated from the British Columbia mainland by Hecate Strait, a 40-mile wide channel of tempestuous water.

Haida oral tradition tells of a time when the strait was mostly dry, dotted here and there with lakes. And indeed, during the last ice age, glaciers locked up so much water that the sea level was hundreds of feet lower than it is today. Soil samples from the sea floor of Hecate Strait contain wood, pollen, and other terrestrial plant materials that tell of a tundra-like environment. Whether or not the strait was ever completely dry during these times, it seems that it did at least contain a series of stepping-stone islands and bridges that remained free of ice.

Today, the highest peaks are often bare of vegetation and snow-covered during most of the year, but back in the time of the glaciers, these same local mountains were the birthplace of advancing ice. Precipitation and a significant drop in temperature gave rise to an ice-sheet, a thick mass of flowing ice that ran tandem with the Cordilleran sheet in the Hecate Lowlands.

Looking around today, you can see where the glaciers left their mark. Many of the Islands’ valleys sport the tell-tale post-glaciation U-shape profile and picturesque erratic boulders can been seen sitting like sentinels on the beach, lone watchmen with an eye to the sea. While the glaciers on the Queen Charlottes were localized, to the east, what had once been and would again be the continental coast was pressed down beneath over a kilometer of ice — the Cordilleran ice sheet.

The melting of the glaciers, between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago, which coincides with the Siberian big-game hunters migrating inland on foot across the Bering Land Bridge, had two other significant effects on the level of sea and land. The first was the release of all the previously locked up water, causing a dramatic rise in sea levels. The second was the simultaneous rise of the continental edge and fall of the islands of Haida Gwaii.

This rise in sea levels transformed the westernmost highlands and mountains of ancient BC into the archipelago of Haida Gwaii and its inhabitants into the master seafarers of the West Coast.

The Hecate Strait served the Haida much as the English Channel served the British after the Norman Conquest: it was a formidable moat that discouraged attacks from the mother continent, but which they could cross at will to explore, trade, and pillage.

For many cultures, obtaining the stable food supply and permanent residences needed to develop advanced artisanship and specialized trades and crafts required becoming an agrarian society: clearing fields, planting crops, and/or raising livestock. But for the Haida, Mother Nature served as farmer, tending the tideland fields.

The enormous difference between high and low tide in Haida Gwaii – up to twenty-three vertical feet – means that twice a day, vast swathes of shellfish are unveiled, free for the taking. An ancient Haida saying is still often heard today, “When the tide is out, the table is set.” Archaeological evidence shows that by about five thousand years ago, gathering shellfish replaced hunting and fishing as their primary food source. The shellfish meat could be smoked, skewered on sticks, and stored for use in winter or for travel.

Over the centuries, the discarded shells accumulated in mounds many feet thick, called middens. The thickness of the middens and carbon dating the shells provide good timelines for human habitation. In addition, as described in the sidebar, chemicals leaching from the shells helped “embalm” bone and antler artefacts that would otherwise have decayed.

Freed from the need to chase game or till soil, the Haida, sometimes called the Vikings of the West Coast, developed their equivalent of the Norse Longship: the war canoe. Whereas any European wooden boat for more than a few people had to be pieced together from planks and ribs, the enormous red cedars of Haida Gwaii allowed carving one-piece dugout canoes up to seventy feet long.

Paddled by as many as thirty warriors – sails did not come into use until after contact with Europeans – these long, elegant craft ranged from Alaska to California, trading for or taking what they wanted. It’s interesting to note that equality in job opportunities is not such a recent notion. It was not unheard of for women to be part of Haida war parties, and they were apparently as much feared as their male shipmates. Naval battles on the ancient Northwest coast may not have rung with the echo of cannon or musket shots, but they would still have been fearsome and deadly. Rocks weighing up to fifty pounds, aptly named canoe breakers, were hurled at enemy boats in attempts to stave in their thin sidewalls. A rope running through a hole drilled in the canoe breaker allowed for its retrieval and reuse.

Presumably, rapidity in retrieval was called for to prevent the embarrassment of your enemy sinking you with your own rock. If canoe breakers were the analogue of cannon, the equivalent of the musket was the atlatl (pronouced"ott-lottle"). 

In any city park, you will see dog walkers using a long plastic device with a scoop to catapult balls for Rover’s retrieving pleasure. If you’ve used one of these, you’ve experienced how much faster and further you can hurl a ball with it than with your unaided arm. You might have thought of this as a cunning modern gadget, but in fact, it’s a variation on the ancient atlatl, or spear-thrower, in use for twenty-five thousand years. The spear or dart lay in a groove in the throwing stick as they were both held in one hand. As the user swung that hand overhead, he released the missile. The butt end of the spear lodged in a notch at the tip of the atlatl until it launched forward at fearsome speed.

In South America, the Spanish Conquistadors were unpleasantly surprised to find that atlatl darts could pierce their armoured breastplates. Indeed, it is the awesome effectiveness of such weapons that has led some scholars to suggest that the extinction in North America of many species of large animals – megafauna, in the scientific jargon – was caused by the encroachment of man.

Giant beavers, oversized ground sloths, and huge armadillo-like creatures all disappeared within a couple of thousand years — a mere heartbeat in geological terms. Other scholars hotly dispute that humans were solely responsible for these extinctions. Significantly however, the disagreement is based on arguments about what effects the changing environment had on these animals, about the timing of human arrival in America, the possible speed and methods of human immigration down the two continents, and whether and when viable ice-free corridors existed down the center of North America; no one appears to be arguing that ancient peoples were technologically incapable of killing such large beasts in enormous numbers.

We know that the islands housed grizzly bears some 13,600 years ago and while they no longer live in the region, we are still searching for clues as to their disappearance. We also find evidence in caves of deer bones dating back 12,600 years, suggesting a post-glacial arrival and a date well before the arrival of Europeans, who were originally credited with their arrival.

Why did some of the larger game on the lush islands thrive for a time and then vanish altogether? Rapid environmental and geographical changes combined with more efficient hunting methods form part of the answer.

We often think that exploiting a renewable food source to extinction, or at least to the point it can no longer feed us, is exclusively a problem of the modern age. Passenger pigeons across the continent, cod on the east coast, and the imperilled salmon on the west coast all come to mind. But the evidence suggests this may well have occurred many times in the past.

If, as the saying goes, “Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.” we would be wise to learn from the history of the early humans in North America. The Haida know the dangers of taking too much from any one place, leaving nothing for the next season. Logging has had a great impact on the salmon stock, particularly the Sockeye whose numbers have dwindled significantly.

The watershed that once protected the streams has been laid bare, allowing seasonal floods to run faster and higher, destroying spawning pools and clawing outside channels. Ain River, once bursting with salmon is now all but bare. A similar fate awaits the Copper River as most of the watershed surrounding it has been logged and the salmon feel the change – they are down to critically small numbers. They have a plan for the islands their lives and spirits are intertwined with. They know that their future and the fate of future generations run parallel with the health and lifeblood of the land beneath their feet and the oceans that crest their shores - Yah’guudang - respect for this place and for all living things.

They know that managing the wealth of logging with the health of their streams and river systems, especially the vital headwaters, is paramount to their future.

The arrival of cedar, called “Tsuuaay” by the Haida, had profound effects on the material culture of the Haida (Approx 4000 BC). Once they were able to build canoes to fish year-round (Halibut, Red Snapper, Ling Cod etc) and could access sea mammals, they no longer only depended on the salmon to return at certain times. The cedar bentwood box, a genius idea in food conservation and storage, allowed them to store food for the winter and reduced their dependence on hunting land mammals throughout the year wained.

The arrival of cedar marks a whole new stone tool tradition. The microblade is abandoned for larger ground tools, which are more appropriate for working with cedar.

Haida stories, songs, dances and crests are displayed through the ancient tradition of feasting and potlatching, where prestige is gained through the distribution of property. This generosity of spirit and sharing has carried on as they now share their lands with newcomers. Haida Gwaii, once the exclusive domain of the Haida people, is now home to many.

Homesteaders began to arrive in the…. Fishermen, others… Their stories have added another layer of richness to this moss-covered landscape.

Protective Shells: How Middens Preserve Bones:

Having food “packaging” accumulate in vast heaps around towns and villages is hardly a modern phenomenon. Many First Nations sites were inhabited continually for centuries. The discard shells and scraps of bone from their food formed enormous mounds called middens.

Left over time, these unwanted dinner scraps can transform through a quiet process of preservation. Time and pressure leach calcium carbonate from the seashells and help “embalm” bone and antler artifacts that would otherwise decay. Bone already contains calcium carbonate, as well as calcium phosphate, but it is also made of protein, cells and living tissue. Decaying bone acts as a sort of natural sponge that wicks in the calcium carbonate displaced from the shells. As protein decays inside the bone, it is replaced by the incoming calcium carbonate. This makes the bone harder and more durable, somewhat as plaster applied to the fabric of a cast makes the structure stiffer and more robust. In addition, the presence of shells can change corrosive acidic soil into more alkaline or neutral earth, which also helps to preserve the bone.


Rock n’ Roll: The Convoluted – And Disputed – Prehistory of Haida Gwaii


The Queen Charlotte Islands are at the western edge of the continental shelf and form part of Wrangellia, an exotic terrane of former island arcs, which also includes Vancouver Island, parts of western mainland British Columbia and southern Alaska. While we’ll see that there are two competing schools of thought on Wrangellia’s more recent history, both sides agree that many of the rocks, and the fossils they contain, were laid down somewhere near the equator. They had a long, arduous journey, first being pushed by advancing plates, then being uplifted, intruded, folded, and finally thrust up again. It’s reminiscent of how pastry is balled up, kneaded over and over, finally rolled out, then the process is repeated again.

This violent lifestory applies to most of the rock that makes up the Insular Belt, the outermost edge of the Cordillera. Once in their present location, the rocks that make up the mountains and valleys of this island group were glaciated and eroded to their present form. Despite this tumultuous past, the islands have arguably the best-preserved and most fossil-rich rocks in the Canadian Cordillera, dating from very recent to more than 200 million years old. On these details, there is a pretty broad consensus. On much else, including exactly where the Wrangellia terrane was born and how fast it moved to its present position, there is lively debate.

The two rival theories each rely on a different type of evidence: biogeographic or paleomagnetic. Volumes have been written on this complex argument. We’ll follow a single thread of the debate to get a sense of the science being marshalled on both sides. Biogeographic evidence compares the types of fossils found in rock with the historic ranges of the living creatures they were formed from, and sometimes with the ranges of comparable contemporary life forms.

Paleomagnetic dating uses the history of the Earth’s magnetic fields. It can give a rough estimate of how far north or south of the equator rock was formed. Palomagnetic data from Triassic rock of Wrangellia suggest that it was laid down somewhere in a band about two thousand miles wide, centered on the equator. The biogeographic work of geologist Dr. Tim Tozer on the fossil faunas of Haida Gwaii concurs with this. The fossils found in the Triassic rock of Wrangellia are equatorial or low latitude life forms quite different from those found today on the Continent at the latitude of the island.

This suggests those rocks were in the equatorial region during the Late Triassic, just over 200 million years ago. Further supporting this, Dr. Jim Haggart, a geologist at the Geologic Survey of Canada, who has worked extensively with the fossils of Haida Gwaii, notes that Lower Jurassic ammonite faunas found on Haida Gwaii are very similar to those found in the Eastern Pacific around South America and in the Mediterranean. The presence of these ammonites seems to indicate that the rock was still at or very near the equator during the Lower Jurassic epoch, which ended roughly 175 million years ago.

To this point in prehistory, the paleomagnetic and biogeographic evidence is in reasonable harmony (at least about how far south Wrangellia was created. There’s much debate about just where along the equator is was, but we’ll ignore that for simplicity’s sake.).It is as we move up through the rock column to younger layers that the two lines of evidence start to conflict. Around the beginning of the Middle Jurassic, the fossils found on the Queen Charlotte Islands, Vancouver Island and in southern Alaska start to be dominated by forms found in high latitudes. This suggests that by the time of the Middle Jurassic, about 165 million years ago, Wrangellia had already completed much of its journey northward. Similar biogeographic evidence from Cretaceous rocks supports this idea as the Cretaceous ammonite, bivalve and radiolarian faunas all appear to be high latitude as well.

In contrast, the paleomagnetic data from Wrangellian Cretaceous rocks on Vancouver, Hornby and Texada Islands initially suggested that they were formed while Wrangellia was still at low latitudes, roughly around present-day southern Baja Mexico. More recently, however, paleomagnetists have conceded that Wrangellia may have gotten as far north as central California by the Early Cretaceous. 

The paleomagnetists now maintain that the islands of Haida Gwaii arrived at their present-day position by the Lake Cretaceous or even earlier, around 60 million years ago. This revised dating still means these two groups do not see eye to eye on just when the islands arrived at their current position. However, the paleomagnetists face some major stumbling blocks:

They can’t locate many of the fault lines necessary to buttress their case. For example, rocks on either side of the valley at Churn Creek north of Lytton originated 2000 miles apart according to paleomagnetic calculations, but no fault line has yet been found running between the supposedly separately created sides.

The paleomagnetists assert that it’s just a matter of time before the required faults are unearthed — mere formalities they are happy to leave to the geologists. Needless to say, many geologists are unimpressed with having these burdens thrust upon them by “paleomagicians” unable to back-up their case. Both sides are able to find many faults in the opposing theory, if not in the Wrangellian terrane.So, are scientists discouraged by such vast gaps in their knowledge of the early Earth? On the contrary, they’re excited.

Paleogeology would be a very dull field if all that was left to do was to cross a few trivial Ts and dot a few insignificant Is. As it is, there are vast opportunities to have your name go down in history by making major contributions to our knowledge of Earth’s prehistory.

Paleomagnetic Dating

You probably remember a demo from science class where a sheet of paper is laid over a bar magnet, and iron filings are scattered lightly onto it. The filings line up with the fields generated by the magnet, in patterns that look rather like bottom-to-bottom fireworks bursts. Something similar occurs when rock is formed, whether by heat or by sedimentation:

Microscopic iron particles in the rock line up with the Earth’s magnetic fields as they are oriented at that time. But unlike the iron filings on the paper, which shift if the paper or the magnet is moved, iron particles in solidified rock remain frozen in their alignment unless the rock is reheated to 600°C or more.

This means that even when the Earth’s magnetic poles flip end for end – something they have done several hundred times during Earth’s history – the iron stays aligned as it was when the rock was formed. By comparing the residual magnetism in the rock with the known historical changes in the Earth’s magnetic fields, an age and birthplace for the rock can be easily be estimated — in theory.

The principle behind paleomanetic dating is easy to summerize: the practise is much more complicated. The intervals between pole reversals fluctuate wildly, from as little as one hundred thousand years to tens of millions of years. The time taken for the shifts to complete once started also varies, from a thousand to eight thousand years. Imagine trying to time events with a grandfather clock that had a pendulum which swung at intervals that could vary from one minute to many hours, while the period of the pendulum swing itself ranged randomly from one second to eight seconds, and you’ll get a sense of the complexity of paleomagnetic dating. While far from a perfect science, paleomagnetic dating provides valuable pieces of the puzzle of Earth’s past.

The Triassic/Jurassic Extinction: A Killer From Outer Space Or Inner Earth?

Located as they are in Canada’s most active earthquake zone, the islands of Haida Gwaii have had their share of shake-ups and scourings. Many of the Islands’ hillsides are scarred by slides (any specific examples?). But the rock beneath speaks of an even more violent past. Very few people know that the rocks here hold the key to a catastrophic event from eons ago. We’ve heard tales and seen images of the cataclysmic damage caused by meteriorites smashing into the Earth’s surface.

Until recently, it was a meteorite impact that was blamed for the worldwide Triassic/Jurassic Mass Extinction. This wholesale dying out of species occurred some 200 million years ago. New evidence challenges the meteorite theory. Experts now believe that tectonic forces may have caused hundreds of volcanoes around the world to erupt simultaneously. The subsequent showers of volcanic ash would have altered the composition of the atmosphere dramatically and plunged the world into near total darkness for years until it settled from the sky.

The picture painted of the sun flickering fitfully through inky clouds, paling against the torrents of glowing lava, while everywhere life is smothered, poisoned, or starved, rivals the most apocalyptic imaginings of Hollywood or religion. We know from worldwide evidence that the extinction was dramatic and affected upwards of 70% of the world’s biota.

Perhaps counterintuitively, for one might think of water as a refuge from fire, smoke, and lava, it was marine lifeforms that suffered the most. This is particularly well documented in the rocks of the Queen Charlottes, especially at Kennecott Point and Kunga Island.

Radiolarian microfossils – tiny, siliceous, single-celled microrganisms – tell the tale. In the Upper Triassic rocks, which predate the extinction 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.

Queen Charlotte Radiolarians: Time Keepers of the World Wide Mesozoic:

Radiolarian microfossils – tiny, siliceous, single-celled organisms – tell the tale. These wee timekeepers have been living in the world’s oceans for about 600 million years. Because they occur in continuous and well-dated sequences of rock in the Queen Charlottes, these exquisitely beautiful microfossils act like a yardstick, helping geologists accurately date rock from around the globe.

In the Upper Triassic rocks, which predate the extinction 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 younger Jurassic rock shows a rebound of radiolarian diversity (though of course, in different forms) - a diversity that continues to flourish and expand in today’s oceans. Inset: The islands of Haida Gwaii are most noted for their fossil ammonites, the coiled cousins to modern day nautilus. These perfectly preserved specimens tell of a deep water environment and warm tropical seas.

Dr. Mclearn, a geologist who has worked on the geology of Haida Gwaii published on the strata exposed at Maple Island was stratigraphically higher than the majority of Albian localities in Skidegate inlet. His findings show that the macrofossil fauna belonged to the Upper part of the Sandstone Member of the Haida formation.

The western end of the island contains numerous well-preserved inoceramids (Birostrina concentrica) and a few rare ammonites (Desmoceras bearskinese). The eastern shores house unusual ammonite fauna in the finer grained sandstones.

Most were in extremely hard concretions while others were loose in the shale. Species include Anagaudryceras sacya and Tetragonites subtimotheanus. A large whorl section of the rare Ammonoceratites crenucostatus was found in 2003.

Sidebar: Hoploparia sp. Paper with Torrey Nyborg (Loma Linda University) on the Rogueus sp. (Raninid crab) from Northwest Bay.

Photos: The ammonites, Desmoceras; Brewericeras; Douvelliceras, from Lower Cretaceous, Middle Albian, Haida Formation deposits

Sidebar: Evidence of human activity dating from 12,500 - 13,500 years ago. Section Cove finds including spear points, salmon remains and bear bones preserved in limestone.

Sidebar: Earliest presence of grizzly bears, 13,600 years ago, work of Rebecca Wigen

Photo: Shell coquina, with abundant Spisula praecursor clams, Late Miocene (~ 10 million years old, Skonun Formation)

BACTERIA: EARLIEST FORMS OF LIFE

Water was home to the earliest life forms, the prokaryotes, simple cells without nuclei.

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."

Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, 1st Edition (1859)

FRESH FISH CONNOISSEURS: THE AMMONITES

Ammonites looked like the still extant Nautilus, a coiled shellfish that lives off the southern coast of Asia. They were kissing cousins in the Class Cephalopoda, meaning "head-footed," closely related to modern squid, cuttlefish and octopus. Cephalopods have a complex eye structure and can swim rapidly. They use these to their advantage as successful marine predators, cruising through the sea expertly grabbing prey with their tentacles - kind of like a hungry fellow at a smorgasborg. Fresh fish anyone?

The ammonite in the image is from the British Columbia Paleontological Alliance calendar. Beautiful photo... even though the ammonite is upside down. The opening at the edge of the shell is where the creature would have lived. Visit www.bcfossils.ca to see the original image and order your calendar for next year.

SCIENCE GEEK VALENTINE: PALEOMAGNETIC DATING

While in no way sexy, paleomagnetic dating stands the test of time for being useful. You probably remember a demo from science class where a sheet of paper is laid over a bar magnet, and iron filings are scattered lightly onto it. The filings line up with the fields generated by the magnet, in patterns that look rather like bottom-to-bottom fireworks bursts. Something similar occurs when rock is formed, whether by heat or by sedimentation:

Microscopic iron particles in the rock line up with the Earth’s magnetic fields as they are oriented at that time. But unlike the iron filings on the paper, which shift if the paper or the magnet is moved, iron particles in solidified rock remain frozen in their alignment unless the rock is reheated to 600°C or more.

This means that even when the Earth’s magnetic poles flip end for end – something they have done several hundred times during Earth’s history – the iron stays aligned as it was when the rock was formed. By comparing the residual magnetism in the rock with the known historical changes in the Earth’s magnetic fields, an age and birthplace for the rock can be easily be estimated — in theory.

The principle behind paleomanetic dating is easy to summerize: the practise is much more complicated. The intervals between pole reversals fluctuate wildly, from as little as one hundred thousand years to tens of millions of years. The time taken for the shifts to complete once started also varies, from a thousand to eight thousand years.

Imagine trying to time events with a grandfather clock that had a pendulum which swung at intervals that could vary from one minute to many hours, while the period of the pendulum swing itself ranged randomly from one second to eight seconds, and you’ll get a sense of the complexity of paleomagnetic dating. While far from a perfect science, paleomagnetic dating provides valuable pieces of the puzzle of Earth’s past.

STAGGERING ABUNDANCE: FOSSILS OF MCABEE

2009 EIGHTH BC PALEONTOLOGICAL SYMPOSIUM

Eighth British Columbia Paleontological Symposium

Presented by the Vancouver Paleontological Society,
University of British Columbia, Earth and Ocean Sciences, and
British Columbia Paleontological Alliance
MAY 15-18, 2009

Call for Posters & Abstracts

2009 BCPA CONFERENCE - The Vancouver Paleontological Society invites you the Eighth British Columbia Paleontological Symposium, to be held at the University of British Columbia, May 15-18, 2009.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER - This year’s keynote speaker will be Dr. Gregory Wilson, a specialist on the evolution and ecology of early mammals, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Integrative Biology. Continuing the format of past symposia, the meeting will bring together both the professional and avocational paleontological community.

As well as an engaging line-up of speakers, there will also be field trips, workshops, retail booth and the return of the popular Paleo Art Show with juried prizes. A Community Open House will be held on the Sunday for members of the general public.

FOSSIL MAMMALS - While the symposium will highlight fossil mammals, we invite talks, posters and displays showcasing all aspects of paleontology, with non-academics especially encouraged to contribute.

SYMPOSIUM ABSTRACT VOLUME - There will be a symposium abstract volume published and provided to all registrants. We request that speakers and poster presenters submit abstracts for the publication. Abstracts can be 1-4 pages (with 1 being standard) in length. Mailing and e-mail address of the author should be included for insertion in the volume.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION of posters and abstracts for publication is April 10, 2009. Submission of an abstract is mandatory for speakers and poster displays. Paleontologists unable to make the meeting but interested in contributing to the abstract volume to share their research on fossil mammals are welcome to contribute.

REGISTRATION – FULL SYMPOSIUM PASS
Professional Paleontologists $100 | Non-BCPA attendees $100 | BCPA Members $80 | Students $60

SEND CHEQUE PAYABLE TO:
Vancouver Paleontological Society, Centrepoint P.O. Box 19653, Vancouver, BC, V5T 4E7

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.bcfossils.ca | http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vanps/ | fossilhuntress@hotmail.co.uk

FOTO NATUREN