ELAFONISI: ΠΑΛΑΙΟΝΤΟΛΟΓΙΑ

Nestled between the Aegean and Libyan Sea, Crete, the largest of the Greek Islands, sits at the southern most tip of Europe, the crossroad of cultures, civilizations, East and West, Africa and Europe.

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 and their marine pals who lived 5 to 23 million years ago in these warm, tropical waters. One of the best collecting sites is the beachside haunt of Elafonisi, on the island’s southern tip, 43km from Kastelli and 76km from Chania.

Aside from the plentiful fossils in creamy pink limestone matrix, the beach is home to sun bathing locals and rare extant marine species. Pinniped Seals and Loggerhead Sea turtles call this part of the world home.

The fields are crimson, filled with lush, red Cretan Poppies. If you have a taste for something more remote, and venture into the local mountains, you’ll see wonderful folliage, exquisite orchids and deep in the forests the last remaining lynx, Roe Deer, Wild Goat and brown bear.

After a day of collecting, you can take in the vineyards to indulge in some fine cretan wine and local olive oil. Enough of either will inspire you to explore the local music scene with you doing a wobbly Pentozali impression by nightfall.

Where in the World:

Elafonisi (alternate spelling Elafonissi) on the southern tip of Crete, 43km from Kastelli and 76km from Chania. longitude 23o 30' 60" N, latitude 35o 15' 60" N

Getting there:

Both Aegean Airlines fly into Crete. If you stop to take in the monastery of Panagia Chrisoskalitissa, "Our Lady of the Golden Step," it is just a mere 6km further to the beaches of Elafonisi via a dirt road. If you are without a car, no worries, there is regular bus service to Elafonisi from Kasteli and Chania. Conveniently, the fossil exposures are easy to spot and a stones throw from the main bus stop.

There is so much more to say about Crete but I'll stop this adventure at Elafonisi. The island holds many mysteries and bountiful fossil finds, including the remains of Deinotherium giganteum, a massive 8 million-year-old mammal and primative relative of the elephants roaming the Earth today.

With an emormous 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... but that is a tale for another day.

PEREGRINE BEAUTY: BIRDS OF PREY

Peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus), are exquisite birds of prey.

Reaching speeds of over 320 km/h (200 mph) they are worthy predators in the air and one of the fastest moving creatures on the planet.

Highly adaptable to hot and cold temperatures, they boast a breeding range that stretches from the icy cold Arctic tundra to the searing Tropics.

The Peregrine Falcon was added to the endangered species list back in the 1970's after their population took a beating from food sources contaminated with pesticides, DDT being the main culprit. With the ban of DDT and active breed and release programs, their numbers have significantly increased.

The very pretty female in this photo is Miss Shade. She weighs in at around 34 ounces, a wee bit larger than her male counterparts, a ratio true for most raptors.

EOCENE PLANT SITE #2

KASKAPAU FORMATION: DINOSAUR BONE

Bones from a variety of dinosaurs have been found in the Tumbler Ridge area of British Columbia. Here plaster is used to protect a valuable dinosaur bone collected from Flatbed Creek near Tumbler Ridge. The bone is from the Kaskapau Formation (Turonian) and was found a few metres away from a Tetrapodosaurus, "four-footed lizard," trackway.

If you are interested in learning more about the paleontology of the Tumbler Ridge area or perhap plan to visit, check out these papers and links from the lovely and hard working Lisa Buckley, one of their two resident paleontologists.

Papers:
Arbour et al. (2008ish) wrote up a paper in the Canadian Journal of Earth Science on dinosaur material collected in the 60s from BC; Rylaarsdam et al. contributed to the same journal two years earlier on the association of dinosaur footprints and skeletal material in the Kaskapau Formation.

Additional Links:

www.trmf.ca (Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation)
www.prprc.com (Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre)
www.canadatracks.com (Maintained by Rich McCrea, PRPRC's curator and vertebrate ichnologist)

HOMAGE TO SPRING

HOMAGE TO SPRING

MORNING SUNSHINE

SALT SPRING ISLAND: HMS ORIOLE

MISTER FINALLY

CLIMBING TO GLORY: 2010 WINTER OLYMPICS

CHÂTEAU-NEUF DU PAPE

Châteauneuf du Pape est le vin de Côtes du Rhône le plus célèbre. Le Coteaux de Châteauneuf du Pape est entre l'orange et Avignon, dans un des paysages les plus beaux de la Provence. Les papes utilisés pour avoir leur résidence d'été là en Châteauneuf du Pape. C'est la vue du plus grand château dans la région.

VANCOUVER 2010

2010 OLYMPICS

SEA SCORPIONS: PREDATORS OF PERMIAN SEAS

About two dozen families of eurypterids “sea scorpions” are known from the fossil record.

Although these ancient predators have a superficial similarity, including a defensive needle-like spike or telson at their tail end, they are not true scorpions. They are an extinct group of arthropods related to spiders, ticks, mites and other extant creepy crawlies.

Eurypterids hunted fish in the muddy bottoms of warm shallow seas some 460 to 248 million years ago before moving on to hunting grounds in fresh and brackish water during the latter part of their reign. Their numbers diminished greatly during the Permian-Triassic extinction, becoming extinct by 248 million years ago.

Eurypterids are found in Canada, most notably at the Ridgemount Quarry near Niagara Falls. This near-perfect specimen of Eurypterus remipes, held by my young cousin Sivert, was named the official state fossil of New York in 1984.

BURNT LEAVES

SEX & INFIDELITY: CLUES AT FACE VALUE

If you have not already chosen your new love, researchers suggest you stay away from those with big chins as they have a tendency to cheat. Researchers from four universities across the US and Canada prodded into the sexual habits of chinny and relatively chin-less females to determine these results.

Kidding? No, they’ve published in the journal Personality And Individual Differences, so it must be true. Larger chins, especially on adult females, are associated with the male growth hormone testosterone and too much of that bad boy can lead to messing around. It seems on an subconscious level men sense this trend and are biased against a more masculine chin. Well, most men. Brad Pitt, quite famously, does prefer women with a strong jawline. Given that his preference might skew the results, I suspect he wasn't included in the study.

The findings are important in demonstrating that perceptions of women as desirable and trustworthy long-term mates can be reliably gleaned by men from viewing only the women's facial features. "Results suggest that information about women's sexual unrestrictedness, which is related to their risk of infidelity, can potentially be conveyed by the masculinity of women's faces."

Hogwash you say? Perhaps you are already hooked up with said chin-cheater? Well, they may cheat, but you may also have found a sexual goldmine. Women (and perhaps men) with larger chins are also more sexually assertive and perhaps better in bed.

Perhaps Brad is onto something. Bring on the chocolate and the chins I say. Everyday is Valentine's Day!

SHEIKS, EBBETS, ANISALAGA ANEIN HUNT, HENDERSON FAMILY TREE

Chief Sheiks, Chief Ebbets, Mary Anéin Anisalaga Hunt (1823-1919), Henderson Family Tree

 

TYAUGHTON AMMONITES

CROSSING THE BERING LAND BRIDGE

The Columbian Mammoth, the official state fossil of Washington, crossed the Bering Land Bridge into North America some one million years ago and made a home roaming the vast grasslands that stretched from Alaska to Mexico, mirroring the great Rocky Mountains, and munching down about 300 pounds of vegetation each day.

During the Pleistocene this extinct elephant extended his habitat down into Central America to modern day Nicaragua and Honduras before dying out around 12,500 years ago. Photo courtesy of Filippo Bertozzi

SALMONID BONE BED: DRIFTWOOD CANYON

We are all familiar with the image of salmon returning to fresh water, to the rivers of their youth, to spawn and complete their lifecycle, in fact, it is one of the staple images of British Columbia.

As adults, we bring our children to witness this cycle, rushing to the banks of our local rivers to watch as the adults, keen in their fight for reproduction and survival, struggle to complete their epic journeys against currents and predators.

Arriving as they do, year upon year, season upon season, it seems to us that this is how it has been since time immemorial.

But we now have evidence that migration to the sea may be a relatively recent behaviour. Fossil beds at Driftwood Canyon, near Smithers, contain large numbers of fossil salmonid remains from the Eocene age, approximately 45 million years ago. What is interesting is that the fossil beds are filled equally with both juvenile and larger adults.

If these salmon were heading off to sea in their juvenile form and returning to spawn as adults we would expect to find an abundance of larger carcasses in the lake sediments and relatively few juveniles. Given the equal numbers, we can conclude that the salmonids of the Eocene, lived out their lifecycle as a landlocked species, the way Kokanee do today.

RAINFOREST FUNGI

TERRA FIRMA: UPTHRUSTING PLATES

Two hundred million years ago, Washington was two large islands, bits of continent on the move westward, eventually bumping up against the North American continent and calling it home. Even with their new fixed address, the shifting continues though subsiding laterally and continuing vertically. The force of these pressure strained plates continues to push seemingly immovable mountains skyward.

This dynamic shifting has created the landscape we see today and helped form the fossil record that tells much of Washington’s relatively recent history of the past 50 million years.

TYAUGHTON FOSSIL BEDS

HOWE SOUND 2010: BRING THE ADVENTURE

A short 90-minute drive north of the city of Vancouver, the nation's gateway to the Pacific, is a recreational Shangri-La that attracts four season adventurers from around the globe to ski, board, hike, mountain bike, kayak and climb the local peaks.

This treasure trove wilderness playground stretches along the breathtaking Sea-to-Sky Highway affording breathtaking views of the Pacific as it follows Highway 99 north out of the sparkling gem of Vancouver from Lions Bay, through Squamish and Garibaldi and into the picturesque Whistler Valley.

As you drive out of the city, look at the mountains to the north. Grouse, Cypress and Seymour mountains provide easy access skiing for the happy winter adventurer and a beautiful backdrop to the young city of Vancouver, Canada's third-largest metropolis, year-round.

While the city sits on relatively young sandstone and mudstone, the North Shore Mountains are made from granite that formed deep within the Earth more than 100 million years ago.

Following Highway 99, you’ll hug the coastline of Howe Sound, a glacially carved fiord which extends from Horseshoe Bay (20 km northwest of Vancouver) to the hamlet of Squamish. The road is perched high above the water, blasted into the rock of the steep glacial-valley slope and has been the chosen path for First Nation hunters, early explorers, the miners of the Gold Rush, the rush of tourism and soon the 2010 Olympics.

Carved from the granitic mountainside high above Howe Sound, this scenic pathway has been a rich recreation corridor and traditional First Nation hunting ground for many years.

Steeped in a First Nations history, bountiful wildlife and gorgeous vistas, the Whistler corridor is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful spots on the globe with something for everyone.

The world will be visiting in the next few weeks to see their competitors reach for gold. While many are loathe to pay for this particular budget challenged event, the hospitable hearts of British Columbians welcome you!

STEPPING-STONE ISLANDS

Steeped in mist and mythology, the islands of Haida Gwaii abound in local lore that surrounds their beginnings. 

Today the Hecate Strait is a tempestuous 40-mile wide channel that separates the mist-shrouded archipelago of Haida Gwaii from the BC mainland. Haida oral tradition tells of a time when the strait was mostly dry, dotted here and there with lakes. 

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. An ancient Haida tale, recorded in the late 1800s by a Hudson’s Bay Company trader, records the island's glacial history. 

Scannah-gan-nuncus, a boy who lived in the village now called Skidegate, had canoed up the Hunnah, a tributary to Skidegate Channel. Today, the Hunnah is a rocky creek, seldom deep enough to navigate. 

The Haida the legend accurately records that it used to be several times deeper. Tired from paddling upstream, Scannah-gan-nuncus landed to take a nap. “In those days at the place where he went ashore were large boulders in the bed of the stream, while on both sides of the river were many trees. While resting by the river, he heard a dreadful noise upstream. 

Looking to see what it was, he was surprised to behold all the stones in the river coming toward him. … all the trees were cracking and groaning … he went to see what was crushing the stones and breaking the trees. On reaching them, he found that a large body of ice was coming down, pushing everything before it.” Scannah-gan-nuncus’ experience with the glacier would have been familiar to the inhabitants of the islands. 

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 the Queen Charlottes ice-sheet, a thick mass of flowing ice that ran tandem with the Cordilleran sheet in the Hecate Lowlands. Strolling around today, you can see where the glaciers left their mark on the Islands’ U-shape valleys, once a steep V-shape, now scoured into a smooth by glaciers that also deposited the erratic boulders can been seen sitting like out of place sentinels on the beach.

SALMON CHIEF: FOOD OF THE GODS

Salmon have permeated First Nations mythology and have been prized as an important food source for thousands of years.

For the Salish people of the Interior, salmon was the most important of the local fishing stock and salmon fishing season was a significant social event which warranted the nomination of a “Salmon Chief” who directed the construction of the hooks, weirs and traps and the distribution of the catch.

In the Interior of the province, archaeological evidence dates the use of salmon as a food source back 3,500 years. Sheri Burton and Catherine Carlson were able to isolate and amplify mitochondrial DNA from salmon remains from archaeological sites near Kamloops, and identified the species as Oncorhynchus nerka, or Sockeye salmon. No older salmon remains had been found in the Kamloops area until the 1970’s, when fossil salmon concretions were collected on the south shore of Kamloops Lake.

These concretions were originally dated as Miocene (24 – 5.5 million years old) by the Geological Survey of Canada, based on analysis of pollen grains found in the concretions. However, many local experts, including UBC geology professor W.R. Danner and the late geologists W.H. Mathews and Richard Hughes, suspected the remains were from the much more recent, Late Pleistocene epoch. But it was not until the early 1990s that Catherine Carlson and Ken Klein found definitive proof of this.

By good luck, the fish remains in the Kamloops Lake concretions had not been completely replaced by minerals – enough of the original organic bone collagen remained for radiocarbon dating. The corrected date is approximately 18,000 years. It is likely that erosion during the time of deposition had carried pollen down from Miocene layers in surrounding hills, to be deposited around the dead fish, causing the initial over-estimation of the age of the concretions.

An age of 18,000 plus years – sets the fossils firmly as the only salmonids of the Late Pleistocene in North America, a very significant find. The date also changed our ideas about the early climate of the Interior; the Thompson Valley could not have been covered by glacial ice for as long as originally thought.

It has long been accepted that the most recent series of ice ages began approximately 1.6 million years ago, beginning as ice accumulations at higher altitudes with the gradual cooling of the climate. Four times the ice advanced and receded, most recently melting away somewhere around 10,000 years ago. Ice retreated from southwestern British Columbia and the Puget Sound area around 15,000 years ago.

In the southern Interior, ice built up first in the northern Selkirk Mountains, then slowly flowed down into the valleys. Once the valleys were filled, the depth of the ice increased until it began to climb to the highlands and finally covered most of the Interior of British Columbia. Between ice advances, there were times when the Kamloops area was ice free and the climate warm and hospitable.

Glacial ice was believed to have initiated its most recent retreat from the South Thompson area around 11,000 to 12,000 years ago, but salmon remains from 18,000 years ago suggest that it may have actually began its northwest decline much earlier and indicating a much warmer climate in the Interior than archaeologists or geologists had originally estimated.

Eighteen thousand year-old salmon also challenge the archaeological notion that aboriginal people of the Interior have had access to salmon as a significant protein source for only a few thousand years. In the popular view, people living in the Okanagan and Thompson Valleys were felt to have moved to settlements that were semi-permanent about 4500 years ago.

By that time they would have had a seasonally regulated diet composed primarily of salmon and supplemented by local game - deer, elk, small mammals – and available shellfish, birds and plant foods. If salmon were present much earlier, it is possible that this pattern of food utilization may have arisen earlier than thought.

Richard Hughes had originally identified the fossilized Kamloops salmon as Oncorhynchus nerka or Sockeye salmon, the same species found in the 3,500 year old archaeological sites. But, using the carbon-13 isotope ratio, Klein and Carlson were able to determine that these salmon did not feed on protein from a marine source and relied solely on a freshwater diet.

In other words, they could not have spent part of their life in the ocean, as modern Sockeye salmon do. Based on the specimens’ smaller heads and stunted bodies, the longest measuring in at a pint-sized 11.5 cm, Klein and Carlson feel that the fossils are likely Kokanee, a modern landlocked variety of Sockeye.

Here two people very precious to me celebrate life's many gifts from land and sea at the 1994 Hunt Memorial Potlatch.

HALE CREEK FOSSIL FIELD TRIP

ELECTIC LIGHT

bronze

CIMETIÈRE EN PROVENCE