MASSIVE FOSSIL AMMONITE NEAR FERNIE, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Titanites occidentalis, Fernie Ammonite

The Fernie ammonite—long known as Titanites occidentalis—has officially been given a new name: Corbinites occidentalis, a fresh genus erected after a meticulous re-evaluation of this Western Giant’s anatomy and lineage. 

What hasn’t changed is its breathtaking presence high on Coal Mountain near Fernie, British Columbia, where this colossal cephalopod has rested for roughly 150 million years.

This extraordinary fossil belongs to the family Lithacoceratinae within the ataxioceratid ammonites. 

Once thought to be a close cousin of the great Titanites of Dorset, new material—including two additional large specimens discovered at nearby mine sites—reveals ribbing patterns and growth-stage features that simply didn’t match Titanites. 

With these multiple overlapping growth stages finally available, paleontologists had the missing pieces needed to correct its identity.

So, Titanites occidentalis no more—meet Corbinites occidentalis, a giant ammonite likely endemic to the relatively isolated early Alberta foreland basin of the Late Jurassic.

Fernie, British Columbia, Canada

The Fernie ammonite is a carnivorous cephalopod from the latest Jurassic (Tithonian). 

The spectacular individual on Coal Mountain measures 1.4 metres across—about the size of a small car tire and absolutely staggering when you first see it hugged by the mountainside.

The first specimen, discovered in 1947 by a British Columbia Geophysical Society mapping team at Coal Creek, was initially mistaken for a “fossil truck tire.” 

Fair enough—if a truck tire had been forged in the Jurassic and left on a mountaintop. It was later described by GSC paleontologist Hans Frebold, who gave it the name Titanites occidentalis, inspired by the giant ammonites of Dorset. 

For decades, that name stuck, even though paleontologists suspected the attribution was shaky due to poor preservation of the holotype’s inner whorls.

Recent discoveries of two additional specimens at Teck Resources’ Coal Mountain Mine finally provided the evidence needed for reassessment. 

With intact inner whorls and beautifully preserved ribbing—including hallmark variocostate and ataxioceratoid ornamentation—researchers Terence P. Poulton and colleagues demonstrated that the Canadian ammonite does not belong in Titanites. 

Their work (Volumina Jurassica, 2023) established Corbinites as a brand-new genus, with C. occidentalis as its type and only known species.

These specimens—one exceeding a metre, another about 64 cm—confirm a resident ammonite population within this basin. And as of now, these giants are unique to Western Canada.

A Journey Up Coal Mountain

If you’re keen to meet Corbinites occidentalis in the wild, you’ll want to head to Fernie, in southeastern British Columbia, close to the Alberta border. 

As your feet move up the hillside, you can imagine this land 10,000 years ago, rising above great glaciers. Where footfalls trace the steps of those that came before you. This land has been home to the Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it First Nation and Ktunaxa or Kukin ʔamakis First Nations whose oral history have them living here since time immemorial. Like them, take only what you need and no more than the land offers — packing out anything that you packed in. 

Active logging in the area since 2021 means that older directions are now unreliable—trailheads have shifted, and a fair bit of bushwhacking is the price of admission. Though clear-cutting reshaped the slope, loggers at CanWel showed admirable restraint: they worked around the fossil, leaving it untouched.

The non-profit Wildsight has been championing efforts to protect the ammonite, hoping to establish an educational trail with provincial support and possible inclusion under the Heritage Conservation Act—where the fossil’s stewardship could be formally recognised.

HIKING TO THE FERNIE AMMONITE (IMPORTANT UPDATE: TRAIL CLOSED)

From the town of Fernie, British Columbia, you would traditionally head east along Coal Creek Road toward Coal Creek, with the ammonite site sitting 3.81 km from the road’s base as the crow flies. 

The classic approach begins at a roadside exposure of dark grey to black Cretaceous plant fossils, followed by a creek crossing and a steep, bushwhacking ascent.

However — and this is critical — the trail is currently closed.

The entire access route runs straight through an area of active logging, and conditions on the slope are extremely dangerous. Between heavy equipment, unstable cutblocks, and altered drainages, this is not a safe place for hikers right now.

Conservation groups, including Wildsight, continue working toward restoring safe public access and formalising the site under the Heritage Conservation Act. 

Their long-term goal is to reopen the trail as a designated educational hike with proper signage, but at present, the route should not be attempted. 

Once logging operations move out of the area and safety assessments are done, the possibility of reopening may return.

For now, the safest—and strongly recommended—way to view this iconic fossil is via the excellent cast on display at the Courtenay & District Museum on Vancouver Island, or at the Visitor Information Centre in Sparwood.

Photo credit: Vince Mo Media. Vince is an awesome photographer and drone operator based in Fernie, BC. Check out his work (and hire him!) by visiting his website at vmmedia.ca.

ANCIENT SEA MONSTERS: ICHTHYOSAURS AND MOSASAURS

When we think of prehistoric creatures, dinosaurs usually steal the spotlight. But beneath the ancient waves swam giants just as awe-inspiring—and sometimes even more terrifying. 

Among these marine reptiles, two groups stand out: ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs. Though they never coexisted, both ruled the oceans in their own time and in their own terrifying ways.

Ichthyosaurs: Dolphin-Like Reptiles of the Jurassic

Ichthyosaurs (meaning "fish lizards") were sleek, fast swimmers that first appeared around 250 million years ago during the Triassic. 

Their streamlined bodies, long snouts, and large eyes gave them an appearance eerily similar to modern dolphins—though they weren’t mammals. This resemblance is a perfect example of convergent evolution, where unrelated animals develop similar traits to adapt to similar environments.

Some ichthyosaurs grew as long as a school bus, and their enormous eyes (some as large as dinner plates) suggest they were capable of deep-sea hunting. They fed on fish, squid, and other marine life, and some species likely gave birth to live young—a rare trait among reptiles.

They thrived for millions of years but began to decline in the mid-Cretaceous, eventually going extinct before the rise of mosasaurs.

Mosasaurs: Apex Predators of the Cretaceous Seas

Enter the mosasaurs, who rose to dominance after the ichthyosaurs were gone. Mosasaurs appeared around 98 million years ago and ruled the oceans until the mass extinction event 66 million years ago that also wiped out the dinosaurs.

These were true marine lizards, closely related to today’s monitor lizards and snakes. Picture a massive, crocodile-headed Komodo dragon with flippers and a shark-like tail—and you’ll have a good image of a mosasaur. Some species grew over 50 feet long, and their jaws were packed with conical, backward-curving teeth perfect for gripping slippery prey.

Mosasaurs were apex predators, eating anything they could catch—fish, turtles, birds, and even other mosasaurs. Their double-jointed jaws could open wide, allowing them to swallow large prey whole.

Who Would Win in a Fight?

While it’s fun to imagine a battle between an ichthyosaur and a mosasaur, it never could have happened—ichthyosaurs were long extinct by the time mosasaurs evolved. That said, mosasaurs were more heavily built and had powerful jaws, making them formidable hunters. Ichthyosaurs were faster and more agile, more suited to quick chases than brute force.

Legacy Beneath the Waves

Both ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs left behind rich fossil records, giving scientists insight into how reptiles adapted to life in the oceans. Their bones have been found on every continent, including Antarctica, reminding us that the ancient oceans were just as dynamic and dangerous as today’s wildest habitats.

Next time you watch a documentary about dinosaurs or visit a natural history museum, take a moment to appreciate the marine reptiles that once ruled the seas. After all, the land wasn't the only place where prehistoric giants thrived.

MEET UNESCOCERATOPS KOPPELHUSAE

Unescoceratops koppelhusae, Julius Csotonyi

A very sweet small leptoceratopsid dinosaur, Unescoceratops koppelhusae — a new species in the collections of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta.

The colourful and beautifully detailed painting you see here is by the very talented Julius Csotonyi who captured the magnificence of form, texture and palette to bring this small leptoceratopsid dinosaur to life.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, named in honour of Joseph Burr Tyrrell, is a palaeontology museum and research facility in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. 

This jaw is the holotype specimen of this small leptoceratopsid dinosaur. Only a handful of isolated fossils have been found from this species, including a jaw that is the holotype specimen now in collections at the Royal Tyrell. 

The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, named in honour of Joseph Burr Tyrrell, is a palaeontology museum and research facility in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. 

Unescoceratops koppelhusae, RTMP Collections

The rusty chocolate jaw bone you see here is the puzzle piece that helped all of the research come together and help us to better understand more about the diminutive leptoceratopsid dinosaurs from Alberta. 

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Michael Ryan and David Evans of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto recently determined that the specimen was a new genus and species. 

Unescoceratops is a genus of leptoceratopsid ceratopsian dinosaurs known from the Late Cretaceous (about 76.5-75 million years ago) of Alberta, Canada. Unescoceratops is thought to have been between one and two meters long and less than 91 kilograms. A plant-eater, its teeth were the roundest of all Leptocertopsids.

Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada

The genus name acknowledges the UNESCO  World Heritage Site, Dinosaur Provincial Park, where the fossil was found. 

In addition to its particularly beautiful scenery, Dinosaur Provincial Park – located at the heart of the province of Alberta's badlands – is unmatched in terms of the number and variety of high-quality specimens.

To date, they represent more than 44 species, 34 genera and 10 families of dinosaurs, dating back 75-77 million years. This provides us with remarkable insight into life millions of years ago.

The park contains exceptional riparian habitat features as well as badlands of outstanding aesthetic value.

The creamy honey, beige and rust coloured hills around the fossil locality are outstanding examples of major geological processes and fluvial erosion patterns in semi-arid steppes — think glorious! 

The scenic badlands stretch along 26 kilometres of high quality and virtually undisturbed riparian habitat, presenting a landscape of stark but exceptional natural beauty.

The species name honours Dr. Eva Koppelhus, who has made significant contributions to vertebrate palaeontology and palynology. 

The genus is named to honour the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation for the locality where the specimen was found and from the Greek “ceratops,” which means 'horned face'. 

Dr Michael Ryan explained that he meant to honour UNESCO's efforts to increase understanding of natural history sites around the world.

© Julius T. Csotonyi An illustration of Unescoceratops koppelhusae, a plant-eating dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period that lived approximately 75 million years ago shared with his gracious permission. 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Dr. Julius Csotonyi is a Vancouver-based scientific illustrator and natural history fine artist. He is a featured paleoartist on Season One of BC's Fossil Bounty. Julius has a scientific background in ecology (MSc) and microbiology (PhD) which has taken him to study sensitive ecosystems, from sand dunes in the Rocky Mountain parks to hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. 

These experiences have fuelled his strong resolve to work toward preserving our Earth’s biota. Painting biological subjects is one means that he uses to both enhance public awareness of biological diversity and to motivate concern for its welfare.   

He paints murals and panels that have appeared in numerous museums including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, press release images for scientific publications, books, stamp sets — including the outstanding 2018 “Sharks of Canada” set for Canada Post — and coins for the Royal Canadian Mint. To view more of Julius Csotonyi's exquisite work visit: https://csotonyi.com/

PALEONTOLOGY PODCAST: DEAD SEXY SCIENCE

Geeky goodness from the Fossil Huntress. If you love paleontology, you will love this stream. Dinosaurs, trilobites, ammonites—you'll find them all here!

Close your eyes & fly with me as we head out together to explore Earth's rich history written in her rock. Travel to extraordinary places, sacred sites & unearth mysteries millions of years old on the Fossil Huntress Podcast.

This stream is for those who share an enduring passion for our world's hidden treasures, its wild places & want to uncover her beauty stone by stone. This is the story of the making of our Earth and the many wonderful creatures who have called it home. 

Join in the exploration of the fascinating science of palaeontology — that lens that examines ancient animals, plants & ecosystems from wee single-celled organisms to big & mighty dinosaurs. Save the stream to your favourites to listen while you drive, head out fossil collecting or snuggle in for the night!

​To listen now, visit: https://open.spotify.com/show/1hH1wpDFFIlYC9ZW5uTYVL

UNEARTHING A JUVENILE ELASMOSAUR ON THE TRENT RIVER

Pat Trask with a Fossil Rib Bone. Photo: Rebecca Miller

In August of 2020, an incredible elasmosaur fossil—a mighty marine reptile—was unearthed high up on the cliffs of the Trent River near Courtenay, on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. 

This thrilling find marks the culmination of a three-year palaeontological puzzle that began with mere fragments and ended with a daring cliffside excavation!

Elasmosaurs were long-necked marine reptiles roaming Earth's oceans from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous (roughly 215 to 80 million years ago). 

Our Trent River specimen clocks in at about 85 million years old. The rock layers in this area were originally laid down as tropical islands far to the south of the equator. Over tens of millions of years, plate tectonics slowly carried these ancient seabeds north and slightly east to the site we know today on Vancouver Island.

For years, tantalizing fragments of this juvenile elasmosaur washed out of the riverbanks—bones that fired the imagination of fossil enthusiasts but stubbornly refused to reveal their precise origin. The first clue surfaced back in 2017 during a Courtenay Museum fossil tour led by Pat Trask. 

One lucky participant picked up a small finger bone from the river. Pat recognized it immediately as belonging to a marine reptile, possibly an elasmosaur. Although it was an exciting discovery, its source on the cliffs remained a frustrating mystery.

Fast forward to 2018. Another fossil tour, another chance encounter: a wrist bone—again, possibly elasmosaur—turning up in the Trent River. Pat looked down in that very moment and spotted a vertebra right at his feet! Now with multiple bones in hand, Pat collected them in the museum’s lab, increasingly determined to find their point of origin.

Throughout 2019, Pat and volunteers from the Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society (VIPS) combed the area for clues. They rappelled down cliff faces, deployed a drone to scour every crack and crevice, but found nothing definitive. 

Then, in August 2020, everything changed. While leading another fossil tour, Pat stumbled across a newly revealed bone in the river—one that absolutely had not been there the day before. Looking up, he spotted a promising section of cliff and, with help from his wife, Deb, and a trusty telescope, he finally spied a bone jutting from the rock.

The excavation that followed was a marvel of planning and perseverance. Scaffolding had to be built, climbing gear prepared, and countless safety measures put into place. 

Over several weeks, the team carefully pried fossil after fossil from the cliff—loose rib bones, gastroliths (stones swallowed for digestion), wrist bones, finger bones, and parts of the back and pelvis. 

The bigger prize, wrapped safely in plaster and lowered ever-so-gently to the riverbank below, contained an array of bones that could include the skull.

Pat Trask Wrapping the plaster casing

This discovery is part of the Trent River’s ongoing reputation for yielding stunning fossils. 

The Courtenay Museum regularly hosts tours here, offering members of the public a chance to walk the same banks and maybe—just maybe—spot the next big find. 

Past discoveries include other marine reptiles and invertebrate fossils, painting a picture of Vancouver Island’s prehistoric marine ecosystems.

For Pat Trask and his family, the discovery is deeply personal. Pat’s brother, Mike Trask, famously found another elasmosaur on the nearby Puntledge River back in 1988. 

There’s even talk that if this particular find proves to be a new species, it could bear the Trask family name in the scientific literature—a fitting tribute to their passion, grit, and history-making finds in the Comox Valley.

 So far, the bones point clearly to an elasmosaur. At roughly four meters in length, this juvenile is smaller than its adult kin, but it’s no less impressive. Every retrieved vertebra, humerus, and pelvis bone draws us deeper into the ancient ocean world of 85 million years ago. James Wood of the VIPS has taken on the painstaking task of preparing the specimen, aided by a new air abrasive generously provided by the Courtenay Museum.

With the fossil safely in the museum’s care, and research well underway, the Trent River elasmosaur story is poised to shine a spotlight on Vancouver Island’s extraordinary prehistoric past. From the moment that first finger bone surfaced in 2017 to the triumphant lowering of the plaster-wrapped jacket in 2020, this has been an adventure for the ages—and a spectacular reminder that our island still has secrets waiting to be discovered!

I hope to see it published with the Trask family name. Their paleontological history is forever tied to the Comox Valley and the honour would be fitting.  

Photo One: Rebecca Miller, Little Prints Photography — she is awesome!

Photo Two: James Wood prepped the material and Pat Trask labelled and oriented the bones.

Photo Three: Pat Trask perched atop scaffolding along the Trent River. And yes, he's attached to a safety line to secure him in case of fall. 

Photo Four: A diagram of the juvenile elasmosaur. See the Excavation Moment via Video Link: https://youtu.be/r82EcEF7Pfc

SECRETS IN STONE: VANCOUVER ISLAND'S TRENT RIVER

Trent River, Vancouver Island, BC

Deep in the moss-draped forests of Vancouver Island, beneath a green canopy of second-growth firs and the distant chatter of ravens, an ancient story lies written in stone. 

You’ll find it not in dusty museums but in the riverbeds, sandstone ledges, and shale cliffs of the Trent River, just south of Courtenay, British Columbia. 

This is a place where geology meets adventure — and where fossil hunters walk through time.

This area has been collected and studied in large part due to the efforts of the Vancouver Island Paleontological Society (VIPS) and its members. 

These keen and knowledgeable citizen scientists have had a huge impact on our understanding of fossils in the region. 

The picture below taken on August 20, 2020, when we were all down on the Trent for the extraction of Baby E-a marine reptile found high up in the bank by Pat Trask. 

The Courtenay Museum hosts regular fossil tours here, led by Pat Trask. On one of those field trips back in 2017, Pat was leading a trip with a family and one of the field trip participants picked up a marine reptile finger bone. 

It was laying in the river having eroded out from a nearby cliff. She showed it to Pat and he immediately recognized it as being diagnostic — it definitely belonged to a marine reptile — possibly an elasmosaur — but what species and just where on the river it had eroded from were still a mystery. As more and more of these bits and pieces were discovered, a very tasty pattern was emerging. Somewhere here, embedded in stone and eroding out bit by bit was a mighty marine reptile. 

The excavation was the culmination of a three-year paleontological puzzle of various folk finding bits and pieces of the specimen but ever elusive, had been unable to locate the source. Time and perseverance won the day and that August morning we were on hand to bring that baby, aptly named Baby-E, out of the site and off to be prepped.

In the photo are VIPS members, James Wood, Betty Franklin, Dan Bowen and Jay Hawley. Each of their personal contributions to the paleontology of the Comox Valley, Vancouver Island and the Pacific Northwest are immense.

A Journey Across Oceans and Ages

The rocks that make up the Trent River landscape weren’t born here. In fact, they began their journey over 85 million years ago, far south of the equator as part of a scattered chain of tropical islands. 

These fragments, riding the massive Pacific Plate, drifted slowly across the ocean, eventually slamming into the western edge of the North American continent.

The Pacific Plate — the largest tectonic plate on Earth, covering over 103 million square kilometers — is a restless force. Fueled by volcanic activity at its spreading center, it continues to expand, pushing against the North American Plate and forcing the ocean floor beneath the continent in a process known as subduction. Over time, this relentless collision helped build the rugged mountains and rich geological complexity of British Columbia.

Among the remnants of those far-flung islands is the Insular Superterrane — a mash-up of crustal fragments welded onto the continent from the Late Cretaceous through the Eocene. This allochthonous (meaning "foreign") terrain is geologically distinct from the rest of the mainland. The rocks you walk on along the Trent River don’t match anything next door in Alberta or even down the road. They’re relics of a world long lost to time.

Fossils Beneath Your Feet

In the 1970s, pioneering geologists Jim Monger and Charlie Ross of the Geological Survey of Canada helped map the complex tectonic puzzle of the Comox Basin. Their work revealed that by 85 million years ago, the Insular Superterrane — and the rocks of the Trent River — had already collided with the mainland, forming part of what we now know as Vancouver Island.

Back then, this region was a lush, subtropical landscape. Fossilized leaves and wood found in the area show ancient relatives of oak, poplar, maple, ash — even figs and breadfruit — thrived here. These are the botanical echoes of the Late Cretaceous, preserved in the mudstones and sandstones along the riverbank.

As you follow the river upstream, you'll come to a striking boundary: the transition from the dark-grey marine shales of the Haslam Formation to the sandy, more terrestrial Comox Formation. This contact zone marks a shift from deep ocean to coastal plain, and both formations offer their own fossil treasures.

Ammonites, Turtles, and Dinosaurs — Oh My!

Head west from Trent River Falls and you’ll arrive at Ammonite Alley, where the shale of the Haslam Formation has yielded beautiful examples of Mesopuzosia and Kitchinites, coiled marine cephalopods that once swam in warm Cretaceous seas. This section represents the Polytychoceras vancouverense ammonite zone, a biostratigraphic marker dating back roughly 84 to 83 million years.

Further along, past slick algae-covered stones and twisting alder roots, the story shifts from ocean to land. Paleontologists have uncovered both marine and terrestrial fossil turtles here — including the rare helochelydrid Naomichelys speciosa, a stubby-limbed, tank-like land turtle that once lumbered through the Cretaceous underbrush.

Even more impressive is the discovery of hadrosauroid dinosaur vertebrae by awesome possum Mike Trask — the tailbone of a duck-billed herbivore that may have wandered the nearby floodplains. Nearby, in the fine-grained sediments of Idle Creek, fossilized leaves and logs still peek from the rock, offering tantalizing clues about the forest these creatures once called home.

And then there’s the ratfish — one of the most bizarre and enigmatic finds from the Trent. Fossils of Hydrolagus colliei, a modern-day chimaera species still living off the Pacific coast, have been found in the area. This particular specimen was a bruiser, larger than its modern kin and armed with disproportionately large eyes and unusual reproductive anatomy. As unappetizing to ancient predators as it is to us, this creature is a fascinating link between ancient and modern marine ecosystems.

Where the Ancient Meets the Present

The Trent River is just one piece of a larger fossil-rich puzzle that includes nearby rivers like the Puntledge, also known for its fossil finds — including marine turtles such as Desmatochelys, as detailed in a 1992 paper by paleontologist Elizabeth Nicholls. 

The Puntledge is significant to the K'ómoks First Nation, who have lived in this region since Time Immemorial and know the river by many names from the Puntledge, Sahtloot, Sasitla, and Ieeksun.

Today, fossil hunters — amateur and professional alike — can follow the rivers through time, discovering clues to a vastly different world hidden in the layers beneath their boots.

Planning Your Adventure

If you're ready to explore the paleontological wonders of the Trent River, head about three kilometres south of Courtenay along Highway 19. Look for a safe pull-off just south of the Cumberland Interchange. A trail leads from the highway beneath the bridge, bringing you to the river’s north bank. From here, the journey unfolds — a mix of scrambling, creek-walking, and sharp-eyed searching that can reveal fossils untouched for millions of years.

To head out on a guided tour of the river, visit the Courtenay Museum website and book in with Pat Trask to take you there, share the river's paleontological history and how to find fossils.

Remember: fossil collection is regulated, so always check local rules and never remove fossils from protected sites. In British Columbia, fossils belong to the province. If you find a fossil, you become its steward, noting where you found it and keeping it safe. Sharing your fossil finds with local paleontological societies and museums helps us to know what has been found and let's you know if that find is significant. If it is a new species, it might even be named after you!

The Trent River reminds us that adventure doesn’t always mean scaling peaks or paddling rapids. Sometimes, it’s found in quiet moments along a riverside, where the moss is thick, the rocks are ancient, and time itself feels close enough to touch.

MIDDLE TRIASSIC HUMBOLT RANGE OF NEVADA

Looking out over the Middle Triassic exposures of the Humboldt Mountain Range.

I was down in Nevada to walk through the outcrops of the Humbolt Range with Dan Bowen and Betty Franklin of the Vancouver Island Paleontological Society and John Fam from the Vancouver Paleontological Society in October. 

We were kindly hosted by a wonderful fossil enthusiast who owns some prime property and agreed to drive up from California to meet us. 

These hills were the site of the 1905 Expedition of the University of California’s Department of Geology in Berkeley funded by the beautiful and bold, Annie Alexander, the women to whom the UCMP owes both its collection and existence. 

Annie brought together a paleontological crew to explore these localities and kept an expedition journal of their trip which is now on display at the University of California Museum of Paleontology at Berkeley.

Annie's interest was the ichthyosaurs and she was well pleased with the results. They dodged rattlesnakes and tarantulas, finding many new specimens as they opened up new quarries in the hills of the Humboldt Range of Nevada.

Ichthyosaurs range from quite small, just a foot or two, to well over twenty-six metres in length and resembled both modern fish and dolphins. The specimens from Nevada are especially large and well-preserved. They hail from a time, some 217 million years ago, when Nevada, and parts of the western USA, was covered by an ancient ocean that would one day become our Pacific Ocean. Many ichthyosaur specimens have come out of Nevada. So many, in fact, that they named it their State Fossil back in 1977.

Fossil fragments and complete specimens of these marine reptiles have been collected in the Blue Lias near Lyme Regis and the Black Ven Marls. More recently, specimens have been collected from the higher succession near Seatown. Paddy Howe, Lyme Regis Museum geologist, found a rather nice Ichthyosaurus breviceps skull a few years back. A landslip in 2008 unveiled some ribs poking out of the Church cliffs and a bit of digging revealed the ninth fossil skull ever found of a breviceps, with teeth and paddles to boot.

Specimens have since been found in Europe in Belgium, England, Germany, Switzerland and in Indonesia. Many tremendously well-preserved specimens come from the limestone quarries in Holzmaden, southern Germany.

BLUE LIAS ICHTHYOSAUR

This well-preserved partial ichthyosaur was found in the Blue Lias shales by Lewis Winchester-Ellis. The vertebrae you see here are from the tail section of this marine reptile.

The find includes stomach contents which tell us a little about how this particular fellow liked to dine.

As with most of his brethren, he enjoyed fish and cephalopods. Lewis found fishbone and squid tentacle hooklets in his belly. 

Oh yes, these ancient cephies had grasping hooklets on their tentacles. I'm picturing them wiggling all ominously. The hooklets were the only hard parts of the animal preserved in this case as the softer parts of this ancient calamari were fully or partially digested before this ichthyosaur met his end.

Ichthyosaurus was an extinct marine reptile first described from fossil fragments found in 1699 in Wales. Shortly thereafter, fossil vertebrae were published in 1708 from the Lower Jurassic and the first member of the order Ichthyosauria to be discovered.

To give that a bit of historical significance, this was the age of James Stuart, Jacobite hopeful to the British throne. While scientific journals of the day were publishing the first vertebrae ichthyosaur finds, he was avoiding the French fleet in the Firth of Forth off Scotland. This wasn’t Bonnie Prince Charlie, this was his Dad. Yes, that far back.

The first complete skeleton was discovered in the early 19th century by Mary Anning and her brother Joseph along the Dorset Jurassic Coast. Joseph had mistakenly, but quite reasonably, taken the find for an ancient crocodile. Mary excavated the specimen a year later and it was this and others that she found that would supply the research base others would soon publish on.

Mary's find was described by a British surgeon, Sir Everard Home, an elected Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1814. The specimen is now on display at the Natural History Museum in London bearing the name Temnodontosaurus platyodon, or “cutting-tooth lizard.”

Ichthyosaurus communis

In 1821, William Conybeare and Henry De La Beche, a friend of Mary's, published a paper describing three new species of unknown marine reptiles based on the Anning's finds.

Rev. William Buckland would go on to describe two small ichthyosaurs from the Lias of Lyme Regis, Ichthyosaurus communis and Ichthyosaurus intermedius, in 1837.

Remarkable, you'll recall that he was a theologian, geologist, palaeontologist AND Dean of Westminster. It was Buckland who published the first full account of a dinosaur in 1824, coining the name, "Megalosaurus."

The Age of Dinosaurs and Era of the Mighty Marine Reptile had begun.

Ichthyosaurs have been collected in the Blue Lias near Lyme Regis and the Black Ven Marls. More recently, specimens have been collected from the higher succession near Seatown. Paddy Howe, Lyme Regis Museum geologist, found a rather nice Ichthyosaurus breviceps skull a few years back. A landslip in 2008 unveiled some ribs poking out of the Church cliffs and a bit of digging revealed the ninth fossil skull ever found of a breviceps, with teeth and paddles to boot.

Specimens have since been found in Europe in Belgium, England, Germany, Switzerland and in Indonesia. Many tremendously well-preserved specimens come from the limestone quarries in Holzmaden, southern Germany.

Ichthyosaurs ranged from quite small, just a foot or two, to well over twenty-six metres in length and resembled both modern fish and dolphins.

Dean Lomax and Sven Sachs, both active (and delightful) vertebrate paleontologists, have described a colossal beast, Shonisaurus sikanniensis from the Upper Triassic (Norian) Pardonet Formation of northeastern British Columbia, Canada, measuring 3-3.5 meters in length. The specimen is now on display in the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada. It was this discovery that tipped the balance in the vote, making it British Columbia's Official Fossil. Ichthyosaurs have been found at other sites in British Columbia, on Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) but Shoni tipped the ballot.

The first specimens of Shonisaurus were found in the 1990s by Peter Langham at Doniford Bay on the Somerset coast of England.

Dr. Betsy Nicholls, Rolex Laureate Vertebrate Palaeontologist from the Royal Tyrrell Museum, excavated the type specimen of Shonisaurus sikanniensis over three field sessions in one of the most ambitious fossil excavations ever ventured. Her efforts from 1999 through 2001, both in the field and lobbying back at home, paid off. Betsy published on this new species in 2004, the culmination of her life’s work and her last paper as we lost her to cancer in autumn of that year.

Roy Chapman Andrews, AMNH 1928 Expedition to the Gobi Desert

Charmingly, Betsy had a mail correspondence with Roy Chapman Andrews, former director of the American Museum of Natural History, going back to the late 1950s as she explored her potential career in palaeontology. Do you recall the AMNH’s sexy paleo photos of expeditions to the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia in China in the early 20th century? I've posted a picture here to jog your memory. Roy Chapman Andrews was the lead on that trip. The man was dead sexy. His photos are what fueled the flames of my own interest in paleo.

We've found at least 37 specimens of Shonisaurus in Triassic outcrops of the Luning Formation in the Shoshone Mountains of Nevada, USA. The finds go back to the 1920s. The specimens that may it to publication were collected by M. Wheat and C. L. Camp in the 1950s.  The aptly named Shonisaurus popularis became the Nevada State Fossil in 1984. Our Shoni got around. Isolated remains have been found in a section of sandstone in Belluno, in the Eastern Dolomites, Veneto region of northeastern Italy. The specimens were published by Vecchia et al. in 2002.

For a time, Shonisaurus was the largest ichthyosaurus known.

Move over, Shoni, as a new marine reptile find competes with the Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus) and the Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) for size at a whopping twenty-six (26) metres.

The find is the prize of fossil collector turned co-author, Paul de la Salle, who (you guessed it) found it in the lower part of the intertidal area that outcrops strata from the latest Triassic Westbury Mudstone Formation of Lilstock on the Somerset coast. He contacted Dean Lomax and Judy Massare who became co-authors on the paper.

The find and conclusions from their paper put "dinosaur" bones from the historic Westbury Mudstone Formation of Aust Cliff, Gloucestershire, UK site into full reinterpretation.

And remember that ichthyosaur the good Reverend Buckland described back in 1837, the Ichthyosaurus communis? Dean Lomax was the first to describe a wee baby. A wee baby ichthyosaur! Awe. I know, right? He and paleontologist Nigel Larkin published this adorable first in the journal of Historical Biology in 2017.

They had teamed up previously on another first back in 2014 when they completed the reconstruction of an entire large marine reptile skull and mandible in 3-D, then graciously making it available to fellow researchers and the public. The skull and braincase in question were from an Early Jurassic, and relatively rare, Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis. The specimen had been unearthed in Warwickshire back in the 1950s. Unlike most ichthyosaur finds of this age, it was not compressed and allowed the team to look at a 3-D specimen through the lens of computerized tomography (CT) scanning.

Another superb 3-D ichthyosaur skull was found near Lyme Regis by fossil hunter-turned-entrepreneur-local David Sole and prepped by the late David Costain. I'm rather hoping it went into a museum collection as it would be wonderful to see the specimen studied, imaged, scanned and 3-D printed for all to share. Here's hoping.

Ichthyosaurus somersetensis Credit: Dean R Lomax

Lomax and Sven Sachs also published on an embryo from one of the largest ichthyosaurs known, a new species named Ichthyosaurus somersetensis.

Their paper in the ACTA Palaeontologica Polonica from 2017, describes the third embryo known for Ichthyosaurus and the first to be positively identified to species level. The specimen was collected from Lower Jurassic strata (lower Hettangian, Blue Lias Formation) of Doniford Bay, Somerset, UK and is housed in the collection of the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum (Lower Saxony State Museum) in Hannover, Germany.

We have learned a lot about them in the time we've been studying them. We now have thousands of specimens, some whole, some as bits and pieces. Many specimens that have been collected are only just now being studied and the tools we are using to study them are getting better and better.

Link to Lomax Paper: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article…

Link to Nathan's Paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/…/10.1080/03115518.2018.1523462…

Nicholls Paper: E. L. Nicholls and M. Manabe. 2004. Giant ichthyosaurs of the Triassic - a new species of Shonisaurus from the Pardonet Formation (Norian: Late Triassic) of British Columbia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24(4):838-849 [M. Carrano/H. Street]

BEARS: HARBINGERS OF SPRING

Stretching the legs on a Spring stroll

Some of Vancouver Island’s many bears take a stroll through the wilds in the Comox Valley. 

While stumbling upon them may cause us surprise, they have heard us (and smelled us) coming for miles. 

If you work or play in the woods of British Columbia, both grizzly and black bear sightings are common. 

As Spring arrives with warmer weather and growing daylight, bears begin awakening in the Comox Valley, across Vancouver Island and around the rest of the province, they wake up thirsty and often quench their thirst, then head back to their dens for more sleep. 

As well as parched, some have such powerful hunger they choose to forgo more sleep in favour of beginning the welcome task of searching for food. 

 

Up for a Spring snack but still a bit sleepy

They snack on plant roots, grasses, berries, insects, the shellfish on our coastlines and small mammals—all to replace the many calories they burned off over their winter hibernation. 

Nearly half the world's population, some 26,000 grizzly bears and 380,000 black bears, roam the Canadian wilderness — of those, 14,000 grizzlies and around 140,000-ish black bears call British Columbia home. 

These highly intelligent omnivores lumber along our coastlines, mountains and forests. It is hard to confirm how many live on Vancouver Island, but estimates range from 7,000 to 12,000. 

Bears in the Fossil Record Both bear families descend from a common ancestor, Ursavus, a bear-dog the size of a raccoon who lived more than 20 million years ago. Seems an implausible lineage given the size of their enormous descendants. 

Our Island black bears are a little larger than their mainland counterparts. Females can weigh up to almost 400 lbs or (180 kg), and our males get up to 600 lbs or (275 kg) in weight. 

Their beefy cousins get even bigger. An average grizzly weighs in around 800 lbs (363 kg), but a recent find in Alaska tops the charts at 1600 lbs (726 kg). This mighty beast stood 12' 6' high at the shoulder, 14' to the top of his head and is one of the largest grizzlies ever recorded — a na̱ndzi. Adult bears tend to live solo except during mating season. 

Those looking for love congregate from May to July hoping to find a mate. Through adaptation to shifting seasons, the females' reproductive system delays the implantation of fertilised eggs — blastocysts —until November or December to ensure her healthy pups arrive during hibernation. If food resources are slim, the newly formed embryo does not catch or attach to her uterine wall, and she would try again next year. 

Female grizzly bears reach mating maturity at 4-5 years of age. They give birth to a single or up to four cubs (though usually just two) in January or February. The newborn cubs are cute little nuggets — tiny, hairless, and helpless — weighing in at 2-3 kilograms or 4-8 pounds. 

They feast on their mother’s nutrient-dense milk for the first two months of life then stay with their mother for another 16 months or more. 

Once fully grown, they can run 56 km an hour, are good at climbing trees, swimming, and live 20-25 years in the wild. 

Bear encounters bring a humbling appreciation of how remarkable these massive beasts are. Knowing their level of intelligence, keen memory, and bite force of over 8,000,000 pascals — enough to crush a bowling ball — inspires awe and caution in equal measure. 

They have an indescribable presence. It is likely because of this that these majestic bears show up often in the superb carvings and work of First Nations artists. First Nation Lore and Language In the Kwak'wala language of the Kwakwaka'wakw — speakers of Kwak'wala — a grizzly bear is known as nan. 

The ornamental carved grizzly bear headdress worn by the comic Dluwalakha Grizzly Bear Dancers — Once more from Heaven — in the Grizzly Bear Dance or Gaga̱lalał, is known as na̱ng̱a̱mł. 

The Dluwalakha dancers receive supernatural treasures or dloogwi, which they pass down from generation to generation. 

Kwaguʼł Winter Dancers — Qagyuhl 

Should you encounter a black bear and wish to greet them in Kwak'wala, you would call them t̕ła'yi. Kwakiutl First Nations, Smoke of the World, count Grizzly Bears as an ancestor — along with Seagull, Sun and Thunderbird. To tell stories of the ancestors is na̱wiła. 

Smoke of the World / Speaking of the Ancestors — Na̱wiła

Each of these ancestors took off their masks to become human and founded the many groups now bound together by language and culture as Kwakwaka’wakw. Not all Kwakwaka'wakw dance the Gaga̱lalał, but their ancestors likely attended feasts where the great bear was celebrated. To speak or tell stories of the ancestors is na̱wiła — and Grizzly bear as an ancestor is Na̱n Helus. 

Whether ancestor or neighbour, these beautiful creatures live all around us. We may see them moving through our neighbourhoods for food or returning to their habitat. 

It is vital for all of us to be mindful of how our actions impact them and to keep attractants — delicious, smelly garbage and open food — in sealed garbage cans and not outside in open containers. We share this world with them and it is our responsibility to help keep them — and us — safe. 

Reporting Encounters: If you encounter wildlife that is aggressive or causing property damage, call the BC Conservation Officer Service at 1-877-952-7277 (RAPP). 

Bear Aware: BearWise offers great advice helping people live responsibly with bears. You can visit them online at https://bearwise.org/

MEMEKAY JURASSIC AMMONITES OF VANCOUVER ISLAND

Coroniceras sp. from Sayward, British Columbia

This yummy Lower Jurassic ammonite with the creamy dark chocolate colouring is from an all but inaccessible outcrop of the Upper Sinemurian, Bonanza Group,  Harbledownense Zone, Memekay River area, near Sayward, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. 

This area is home to the We Wai Kai and Wei Wai Kum First Nations and lands of the K'omoks First Nation whose culture thrives and reflects the natural rugged beauty of the central island region.

I will be headed back to these outcrops next month on the way to northern Vancouver Island. 

It is rugged, remote and beautiful. Think trees and valleys for as far as the eye can see. Some of those hillsides on the horizon contain wonderful fossils, including this Coroniceras sp. with the truly marvellous keel.

By the time these ammonites were being buried in sediment, Wrangellia, the predominately volcanic terrane that now forms Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii, had made its way to the northern mid-latitudes.

Within the basal part of the sequence, sedimentary beds are found interbedded with lapilli and crystal tuffs. Here you'll see maroon tuffaceous sandstone, orange-grey sandstone, granule sandstone and conglomerate. Within them we find ammonites nestled in with gastropods and pelecypods. 

While the fossiliferous outcrop is quite small, the Bonanza group is much larger, estimated to be at least 1000 metres thick. The site is quite small and in an active logging area, so the window to collect is limited. 

We have been to the site many times. One one of the past trips, the drive up the mountain was thrilling as there had just been heavy rains and the road was washed out and narrowed until it was barely the width of our wheelbase and very, very steep. Closer to the top it narrowed to be just shy of the width of the vehicle — thrilling, to say the least. 

So scary that my passengers all got out as there was a high probability of going head-first over the edge. I was navigating by some handwritten field notes and a wee map on a paper napkin that should have read, "park at the bottom and hike up." 

Did we park at the bottom and hike up? No, we did not. 

The torrential rains of the Pacific Northwest had been working their magic on the hillside and slowly washing out the road until it slowly became more of a trail.

At the base of the hillside all looked well. Giddy for the fossils to come, we ventured off with a truck full of enthusiasm. Within 15 minutes of steep elevation gain, we had a wonderful view of the valley below. We were halfway up the mountain before I realized the error of my ways. The road twisted and turned then slowly narrowed to the width of my tires. Too narrow to turn around, so the only way was up. 

Graham Beard from Qualicum Beach was the fellow who showed me the site and drew the wee map for me. I cannot recall everyone on the trip, but Perry Poon was there — he shot a video of the drive up that he described as thrilling. I have never seen it but would like to one day — and so was Patricia Coutts with her lovely Doberman. 

She and I had just done a trip up to Goldbridge where the cliff we were on had turned into a landslide into a ravine so she was feeling understandably cautious about the power of Mother Nature. 

Picture the angle, the hood of my jeep riding high and hiding what remained of the road beneath and a lovely stick shift that made you roll backwards a wee bit with every move to put it into gear. So, without being able to see the very narrow path beneath, I had to just keep going. 

Both Perry and Patricia helped with filling in the potholes so my tires would have something to grip. 

I bent the frame on the jeep heading up and had some explaining to do when I returned it to the car rental place. 

As I recall, I wasn't in my ordinary vehicle but a rental because my car had been stolen the weekend before when I was away with John Fam and Dan Bowen collecting at Jurassic Point, an epic fossil site accessible only by boat on our wild west coast.

Fortuitous timing really, as they stole my car but I had unloaded my precious fossil collecting gear out of the trunk just days before.  

In the end, we found what we were looking for. Memekay yields a mix of ammonites, gastropods and bivalves. 

Many of them are poorly preserved. It was a hell of a ride but well worth the effort as we found some great fossils and with them more information on the palaeontology and geology of Vancouver Island. Just look at the keel on this beauty.

I would share the site information but it is now covered over with debris and inaccessible. One day, this whole region will be developed and the site will be opened up again. Until then, we'll have to enjoy what has been unearthed.

THE DUDLEY BUG: ROLLED TRILOBITES

A lovely rolled trilobite, Calymene blumenbachii,  from outcrops in the UK. This wee beauty is in the collections of the deeply awesome Theresa Paul Spink Dunn — or perhaps in her daughter Layla's collections as she is quite the budding palaeontologist. 

This Silurian beauty is from the Homerian, Wenlock Series, Wrens Nest, Dudley, UK.

I was passing through Qualicum this past week and had an impromptu visit with Graham and Tina Beard. 

They are lifelong friends and avid fossil collectors. Over the past few years, they have traveled to the UK and in passing, Graham mentioned that he had a chance to go to the outcrops where the Dudley Bug can be found. 

His timing was especially fortuitous as the Wenlock Edge quarry is closed now to further collecting but may be open to future research projects. We shall have to wait and see.

Calymene blumenbachii, sometimes erroneously spelled blumenbachi, is a species of trilobite found in the limestone quarries of the Wren's Nest in Dudley, England.

Nicknamed the Dudley Bug or Dudley Locust by an 18th-century quarryman, it became a symbol of the town and featured on the Dudley County Borough Council coat-of-arms. Calymene blumenbachii is commonly found in Silurian rocks (422.5-427.5 million years ago) and is thought to have lived in the shallow waters of the Silurian, in low energy reefs.

This particular species of Calymene — a fairly common genus in the Ordovician-Silurian — is unique to the Wenlock series in England and comes from the Wenlock Limestone Formation in Much Wenlock and the Wren's Nest in Dudley. 

These sites seem to yield trilobites more readily than any other areas on the Wenlock Edge, and the rock here is dark grey as opposed to yellowish or whitish as it appears on other parts of the Edge, just a few miles away, in Church Stretton and elsewhere suggesting local changes in the environment in which the rock was deposited. 

As an aside, while I was in the UK last, I attended a conference in London's Natural History Museum and given a private tour of some of their collections. It was with immense pride that I saw Graham Beard's kind donation to the museum snug up near Darwin. It seems the museum catalogues donations alphabetically so the two collections were quite close to one another. Two great men with a shared love of paleontology across the ages!

YORKSHIRE HISTORY: FOSSILS, TEXTILES AND URINE

Yorkshire Coast

You may recall the eight-metre Type Specimen of the ichthyosaur, Temnodontosaurus crassimanus, found in an alum quarry in Yorkshire, northern England.

The Yorkshire Museum was given this important ichthyosaur fossil back in 1857 when alum production was still a necessary staple of the textile industry. 

Without that industry, many wonderful specimens would likely never have been unearthed.

These quarries are an interesting bit of British history as they helped shape the Yorkshire Coast, created an entirely new industry and gave us more than a fixative for dyes. 

With them came the discovery of many remarkable fossil specimens and, oddly, local employment in the collection of urine.

In the 16th century, alum was essential in the textile industry as a fixative for dyes. 

By the first half of the 16th century, the clothing of the Low Countries, German states, and Scandinavia had developed in a different direction than that of England, France, and Italy, although all absorbed the sobering and formal influence of Spanish dress after the mid-1520s. Those fashions held true until the Inquisition when religious persecution, politics and fashion underwent a much-needed overhaul to something lighter.

Fashion in Medieval Livonia (1521): Albrecht Dürer

Elaborate slashing was popular, especially in Germany. In the depiction you see here, an artist pokes a bit of fun at Germanic fashion from the time. Bobbin lace arose from passementerie in the mid-16th century in Flanders, the Flemish Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium. Black was increasingly worn for the most formal occasions.

This century saw the rise of the ruff, which grew from a mere ruffle at the neckline to immense, slightly silly, cartwheel shapes. They adorned the necklines of the ultra-wealthy and uber-stylish men and women of the age.

At their most extravagant, ruffs required wire supports and were made of fine Italian reticella, a cutwork linen lace. You can imagine the many hours of skill and patience that would have gone into each piece to create the artful framework of these showy lace collars.

16th Century Fashion / Ruff Collars and Finery

In contrast to all that ruff, lace and cutwork linen, folk needed dyed fabrics. And to fix those dyes, they needed Alum. For a time, Italy was the source of that alum.

The Pope held a tidy monopoly on the industry, supplying both alum and the best dyes. He also did a nice trade in colourful and rare pigments for painting. And for a time, all was well with dandy's strutting their finery to the local fops in Britain.

All that changed during the Reformation. Great Britain, heathens as they were, were cut off from their Papal source and needed to fend for themselves.

The good Thomas Challoner took up the charge and set up Britain's first Alum works in Guisborough. Challoner looked to palaeontology for inspiration. Noticing that the fossils found on the Yorkshire coast were very similar to those found in the Alum quarries in Europe, he hatched a plan to set-up an alum industry on home soil. 

As the industry grew, sites along the coast were favoured as access to the shales and subsequent transportation was much easier.

Alum House, Photo: Joyce Dobson and Keith Bowers

Alum was extracted from quarried shales through a large scale and complicated process which took months to complete. 

The process involved extracting then burning huge piles of shale for 9 months, before transferring it to leaching pits to extract an aluminium sulphate liquor. This was sent along channels to the alum works where human urine was added.

At the peak of alum production, the industry required 200 tonnes of urine every year. That's the equivalent of all the potty visits of more than 1,000 people. Yes, strange but true.

The steady demand was hard to keep up with and urine became an imported resource from markets as far away as London and Newcastle upon Tyne in the northeast of England. Wooden buckets were left on street corners for folk to do their business then carted back to the south to complete the alum extraction process. The urine and alum would be mixed into a thick liquid. Once mixed, the aromatic slosh was left to settle and then the alum crystals were removed.

I'm not sure if this is a folktale or plain truth, but as the story goes, one knows when the optimum amount of alum had been extracted as you can pop an egg in the bucket and it floats on its own.

Alum House. Photo: Ann Wedgewood and Keith Bowers

The last Alum works on the Yorkshire Coast closed in 1871. This was due to the invention of manufacturing synthetic alum in 1855, then subsequently the creation of aniline dyes that contained their own fixative.

Many sites along the Yorkshire Coast bear evidence of the alum industry. These include Loftus Alum Quarries where the cliff profile is drastically changed by extraction and huge shale tips remain.

Further South are the Ravenscar Alum Works, which are well-preserved and enable visitors to visualize the processes which took place. The photos you see here are of Alum House at Hummersea. The first shows the ruin of Alum House printed on a postcard from 1906. The second (bottom) image shows the same ruin from on high with Cattersty Point in the background.

The good folk at the National Trust in Swindon are to thank for much of the background shared here. If you'd like to learn more about the Yorkshire area or donate to a very worthy charity, follow their link below.

Reference: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/yorkshire-coast/features/how-alum-shaped-the-yorkshire-coast

FOSSIL BIRDS OF SOUTHERN VANCOUVER ISLAND

Stemec suntokum, Sooke Formation

The diving bird you see here is Stemec suntokum, a Fossil Plopterid from Sooke, British Columbia, Canada.

We all dream of finding new species, and new fossil species in particular. This happens more than you think. As impossible as it sounds, it has happened numerous times at many fossils sites in British Columbia including Sooke on Vancouver Island.

The upper Oligocene Sooke Formation outcrops at Muir Beach on southwestern Vancouver Island, British Columbia where it is flanked by the cool, clear waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

While the site has been known since the 1890s, my first trip here was in the early 1990s as part of a Vancouver Paleontological Society (VanPS) fossil field trip. 

This easy, beach walk locality is a wonderful place to collect fossils and is especially good for families. If you are solar-powered, you will enjoy the sun playing off the surf from May through September. If you are built of hardier stuff, then the drizzle of Spring or Autumn is a lovely, un-people-y time to walk the beachfront.

As well as amazing west coast scenery, the beach site outcrop has a lovely soft matrix with well-preserved fossil molluscs, often with the shell material preserved (Clark and Arnold, 1923).

By the Oligocene ocean temperatures had cooled to near modern levels and the taxa preserved here as fossils bear a strong resemblance to those found living beneath the Strait of Juan de Fuca today. Gastropods, bivalves, echinoids, coral, chitin and limpets are common-ish — and on rare occasions, fossil marine mammals, cetacean and bird bones are discovered.

Fossil Bird Bones 

Back in 2013, Steve Suntok and his family found fossilized bones from a 25-million-year-old wing-propelled flightless diving bird while out strolling the shoreline near Sooke. Not knowing what they had found but recognizing it as significant, the bones were brought to the Royal British Columbia Museum to identify.

The bones found their way into the hands of Gary Kaiser. Kaiser worked as a biologist for Environment Canada and the Nature Conservatory of Canada. After retirement, he turned his eye from our extant avian friends to their fossil lineage. The thing about passion is it never retires. Gary is now a research associate with the Royal British Columbia Museum, published author and continues his research on birds and their paleontological past.

Kaiser identified the well-preserved coracoid bones as the first example from Canada of a Plotopteridae, an extinct family that lived in the North Pacific from the late Eocene to the early Miocene. In honour of the First Nations who have lived in the area since time immemorial and Steve Suntok who found the fossil, Kaiser named the new genus and species Stemec suntokum.

Magellanic Penguin Chick, Spheniscus magellanicus

This is a very special find. Avian fossils from the Sooke Formation are rare. We are especially lucky that the bird bone was fossilized at all.  These are delicate bones and tasty. Scavengers often get to them well before they have a chance and the right conditions to fossilize.

Doubly lucky is that the find was of a coracoid, a bone from the shoulder that provides information on how this bird moved and dove through the water similar to a penguin. It's the wee bit that flexes as the bird moves his wing up and down.

Picture a penguin doing a little waddle and flapping their flipper-like wings getting ready to hop near and dive into the water. Now imagine them expertly porpoising —  gracefully jumping out of the sea and zigzagging through the ocean to avoid predators. It is likely that the Sooke find did some if not all of these activities.

When preservation conditions are kind and we are lucky enough to find the forelimbs of our plotopterid friends, their bones tell us that these water birds used wing-propelled propulsion to move through the water similar to penguins (Hasegawa et al., 1979; Olson and Hasegawa, 1979, 1996; Olson, 1980; Kimura et al., 1998; Mayr, 2005; Sakurai et al., 2008; Dyke et al., 2011).

Kaiser published on the find, along with Junya Watanabe, and Marji Johns. Their work: "A new member of the family Plotopteridae (Aves) from the late Oligocene of British Columbia, Canada," can be found in the November 2015 edition of Palaeontologia Electronica. If you fancy a read, I've included the link below.

The paper shares insights into what we have learned from the coracoid bone from the holotype Stemec suntokum specimen. It has an unusually narrow, conical shaft, much more gracile than the broad, flattened coracoids of other avian groups. This observation has led some to question if it is, in fact, a proto-cormorant of some kind. We'll need to find more of their fossilized lineage to make any additional comparisons.

Sooke, British Columbia and Juan de Fuca Strait

Today, fossils from these flightless birds have been found in outcrops in the United States and Japan (Olson and Hasegawa, 1996). They are bigger than the Sooke specimens, often growing up to two metres.

While we'll never know for sure, the wee fellow from the Sooke Formation was likely about 50-65 cm long and weighed in around 1.72-2.2 kg — so roughly the length of a duck and weight of a small Magellanic Penguin, Spheniscus magellanicus, chick. 

To give you a visual, I have included a photo of one of these cuties here showing off his full range of motion and calling common in so many young.

The first fossil described as a Plotopteridae was from a wee piece of the omal end of a coracoid from Oligocene outcrops of the Pyramid Hill Sand Member, Jewett Sand Formation of California (LACM 8927). Hildegarde Howard (1969) an American avian palaeontologist described it as Plotopterum joaquinensis. Hildegarde also did some fine work in the La Brea Tar Pits, particularly her work on the Rancho La Brea eagles.

In 1894, a portion of a pelagornithid tarsometatarsus, a lower leg bone from Cyphornis magnus (Cope, 1894) was found in Carmanah Group on southwestern Vancouver Island (Wetmore, 1928) and is now in the collections of the National Museum of Canada as P-189401/6323. This is the wee bone we find in the lower leg of birds and some dinosaurs. We also see this same bony feature in our Heterodontosauridae, a family of early and adorably tiny ornithischian dinosaurs — a lovely example of parallel evolution.

While rare, more bird bones have been found in the Sooke Formation over the past decade. In 2013, three avian bones were found in a single year. The first two were identified as possibly being from a cormorant and tentatively identified as Phalacrocoracidae tibiotarsi, the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird.

They are now in the collections of the Royal BC Museum as (RBCM.EH2013.033.0001.001 and RBCM.EH2013.035.0001.001). These bones do have the look of our extant cormorant friends but the specimens themselves were not very well-preserved so a positive ID is tricky.

The third (and clearly not last) bone, is a well-preserved coracoid bone now in the collection at the RBCM as (RBCM.EH2014.032.0001.001).

The fossil bird find was the first significant find by the Suntok family but not their last. Just last year, they found part of a fish dental plate was studied by Russian researcher Evgeny Popov who named this new genus and species of prehistoric fish Canadodus suntoki, which translates to the "Tooth from Canada." Perhaps not quite as inspired as Kaiser, but a lovely homage to these Citizen Scientists.

Sooke Fossil Fauna

Along with these rare bird bones, the Paleogene sedimentary deposits of the Carmanah Group on southwestern Vancouver Island have a wonderful diversity of delicate fossil molluscs (Clark and Arnold, 1923). Walking along the beach, look for boulders with white shelly material in them. You'll want to collect from the large fossiliferous blocks and avoid the cliffs. The lines of fossils you see in those cliffs tell the story of deposition along a strandline. Collecting from them is both unsafe and poor form as it disturbs nearby neighbours and is discouraged.

Sooke Formation Gastropods, Photo: John Fam

We find nearshore and intertidal genera such as Mytilus (mussels) and barnacles, as well as more typically subtidal predatory globular moon snails (my personal favourite), surf clams (Spisula, Macoma), and thin, flattened Tellin clams.

The preservation here formed masses of shell coquinas that cemented together but are easily worked with a hammer and chisel. Remember your eye protection and I'd choose wellies or rubber boots over runners or hikers.

You may be especially lucky on your day out. Look for the larger fossil bones of marine mammals and whales that lived along the North American Pacific Coast in the Early Oligocene (Chattian).

Concretions and coquinas on the beach have yielded desmostylid, an extinct herbivorous marine mammal, Cornwallius sookensis (Cornwall, 1922) and 40 cm. skull of a cetacean Chonecetus sookensis (Russell, 1968), and a funnel whale, a primitive ancestor of our Baleen whales. 

A partial lower jaw and molar possibly from a large, bear-like beach-dwelling carnivore, Kolponomos, was also found here. A lovely skull from a specimen of Kolponomos clallamensis (Stirton, 1960) was found 60 km southwest across the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the early Miocene Clallam Formation and published by Lawrence Barnes and James Goedert. That specimen now calls the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County home and is in their collections as #131148.

Directions to Muir Creek Fossil Site at Sooke: 

From the town of Sooke west of Victoria, follow Highway 14 for about 14 kilometres. Just past the spot where the highway crosses Muir Creek, you will see a gravel parking area on your left. Pull in and park here. 

From the barrier, walk out to the beach and turn right (west) and walk until you see the low yellow-brown sandstone cliffs about 400 metres ahead. 

Look at the grey sandstone boulders on the beach with bits of white flecks in them. The fossil material here will most often be a whitish cream colour. Check for low tide before heading out and choose rubber boots for this beach adventure.

References: 

L. S. Russell. 1968. A new cetacean from the Oligocene Sooke Formation of Vancouver Island, British Colombia. Canadian Journal of Earth Science 5:929-933
Barnes, Lawrence & Goedert, James. (1996). Marine vertebrate palaeontology on the Olympic Peninsula. Washington Geology, 24(3):17-25.

Fancy a read? Here's the link to Gary Kaiser's paper: https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2015/1359-plotopterid-in-canada. If you'd like to head to the beach site, head to: 48.4°N 123.9°W, paleo-coordinates 48.0°N 115.0°W.