Tuesday 3 February 2009
Monday 2 February 2009
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 (any specific examples?). 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.
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
The Vancouver Paleontological Society invites you to submit a poster or abstract for the Eighth British Columbia Paleontological Symposium, to be held at the University of British Columbia, May 15-18, 2009.
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 paleontological art show with juried prizes. 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 to the editor (see below). Abstracts can be 1-4 pages (with 1 being standard) in length although exceptions will be made for specific requests.
Abstract contributors are encouraged to include photos and/or diagrams although it should be noted that the abstract volume would be printed in black and white. Documents will not be edited for content but may be reformatted to fit into the volume. 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 1st, 2009. Submission of an abstract is mandatory for speakers and poster displays.
About the Vancouver Paleontological Society
The Vancouver Paleontological Society is a non-profit society whose purpose is to promote the science of paleontology through study and education and make contributions to the science through discovery, collection, description, public education and preservation of material for study and posterity.
British Columbia Paleontological Alliance
The Vancouver Paleontological Society is a member of the British Columbia Paleontological Alliance, a union of professional and amateur paleontologists working to advance the science of paleontology. For more information: www.bcfossils.ca
Submitting a Poster - Helpful Hints
What is a poster? A poster is a visual medium to express current results of one's research work on a topic the presenter has chosen to study or to provide an overview of a researched topic. A poster is something that you pin up on a board. The dimension of a poster can vary from 2' x 3' to 4' x 8'. It contains text and figures relevant to one's work. It follows the same pattern as any scientific article that appears in a journal does. One typical format:
Title, Author(s), Affiliation
Summary
Introduction – Reasons behind the work
General information
Geographical location of where the fossils were found
Description and interpretation
Conclusions
References
Dedicate a box to each one of the above categories. Within the box, include the text and figures relevant to the category. Number the boxes in such a way that the reader can follow from one box to the other in a sequence the presenter wishes. The structure of the above framework changes from topic to topic.
Who should do a poster?
Anyone who has an interest in sharing their work and who likes feedback from the audience (or attendees) on their work should consider doing a poster.
What should be considered for a poster?
Any topic that ties in with palaeontology can be considered for a poster.
Why posters?
Written presentations are mechanisms to convey past and recent developments in a field of study essential to the investigator. An effective written presentation is a poster presentation.
How does one make a poster & how should it look?
Most posters are made using a computer, either in a word processing program or PowerPoint. However, you do not have or use a computer to make a poster. Whatever the size of your poster is should be easily ready from 3 to 4 feet away. The same is true for photos, graphs and figures. Ensure they are printed large enough to be clear from a distance. Posters can be full color or black and white.
Good Luck!
Eighth British Columbia Paleontological Symposium
Presented by the Vancouver Paleontological Society,
University of British Columbia, Earth and Ocean Sciences & British Columbia Paleontological Alliance
May 15-18, 2009
Vancouver, BC
PROGRAM:
Fri, May 15, 2009:
5:00 PM Registration Opens
Poster & Fossil Display Set-up
6:00 - 10:00 Walcott Icebreaker
Posters, Fossil Displays & Art Show
Sat, May 16, 2009:
8:30 Registration & Package Pick-Up
9:00 Welcome & Keynote Address
9:45 -4:00 Speaker Program
Posters, Fossil Displays & Art Show
6:00 PM W.R Danner Banquet
Sun, May 17, 2009:
8:30 Registration & Package Pick-Up
9:00 – 3:00 Speaker Program
Posters, Fossil Displays & Art Show
3:00 – 5:00 Community Open House
Junior Paleontologist Workshops & Fossil ID
4:00 – 6:00 Symposium Workshops
Mon, May 18, 2009
9:00 AM Field Trip Departures
Location: University of British Columbia
Deadline for submission of posters and abstracts for publication is April 1st, 2009. Submission of an abstract is mandatory for speakers and poster displays.
Further Information
Posters presentation | Abstract submissions | General Information |
E-mail: fossilhuntress@hotmail.co.uk
MEANDERING THROUGH THE EOCENE: CHUCKANUT DRIVE
by Heidi Henderson
Chuckanut Drive, in northwestern Washington provides a visual feast from sea to sky.
An amazing array of plants and animals call this coastline home. For the fossil enthusiast, it is a chance to slip back in time and have a bird’s eye view to a more tropical time with a visit to the Chuckanut Formation. Snug up against the Pacific Ocean, this 6000m thick exposure yields a vast number of tropical and flowering plants that you might see in Mexico today. Easily accessible by car, this rich natural playground makes for an enjoyable daytrip just one hour south of the US Border.
Shaping our World
Over vast expanses of time, powerful tectonic forces have massaged the western edge of the continent, smashing together a seemingly endless number of islands to produce what we now know as North America and the Pacific Northwest.
Intuition tells us that the earth’s crust is a permanent, fixed outer shell – terra firma. Aside from the rare event of an earthquake or the eruption of Mount St. Helen’s, our world seems unchanging, the landscape constant. In fact, it has been on the move for billions of years and continues to shift each day. As the earth’s core began cooling, some 4.5 billion years ago, plates, small bits of continental crust, have become larger and smaller as they are swept up in or swept under their neighboring plates. Large chunks of the ocean floor have been uplifted, shifted and now find themselves thousands of miles in the air, part of mountain chains far from the ocean today or carved by glacial ice into valleys and basins.
Washington is Born
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; the more extreme movement has subsided laterally and continues vertically. The upthrusting of plates continues to move our mountain ranges skyward – the path of least resistance.
This dynamic movement has created the landscape we see today and helped form the fossil record that tells much of Washington’s relatively recent history – the past 50 million years.
Chuckanut Formation
The area we will be visiting along Chuckanut Drive is much younger than other parts of Washington. The fossils we will visit lived and died some 40-55 million years ago, very close to where they
are now, but in a much warmer, swampy setting.
The exposures of the Chuckanut Formation were once part of a vast river delta; imagine, if you will, the bayou country of the Lower Mississippi. The siltstones, sandstones, mudstones and conglomerates of the Chuckanut Formation were laid down about 40-54 million years ago during the Eocene epoch, a time of luxuriant plant growth in the subtropical flood plain that covered much of the Pacific Northwest. This ancient wetland provided ideal conditions to preserve the many trees, shrubs & plants that thrived here.
Plants are important in the fossil record because they are more abundant and can give us a lot of information about climate, temperature, the water cycle and humidity of the region. The Chuckanut flora is made up predominantly of plants whose modern relatives live in tropical areas such as Mexico and Central America. If you are interesting in viewing a tropical paradise in your own backyard, look no further than the Chuckanut.
Images and tag lines: Glyptostrobus, the Chinese swamp cypress, is perhaps the most common plant found here. Also abundant are fossilized remains of the North American bald cypress, Taxodium; Metasequoia (dawn redwood), Lygodium (climbing fern), large Sabal (palm) and leaves from a variety of broad leaf angiosperm plants such as (witch hazel), Laurus (laurel), Ficus (fig) and Platanus (sycamore), and several other forms.
Inset: Mammal Fossils in Washington
While less abundant, evidence of the animals that called this ancient swamp home are also found here. Rare bird, reptile, and mammal tracks have been immortalized in the outcrops of the Chuckanut Formation.
Tracks of a type of archaic mammal of the Orders Pantodonta or Dinocerata (blunt foot herbivores), footprints from a small shorebird, and tracks from an early equid or webbed bird track give evidence to the vertebrates that inhabited the swamps, lakes and river ways of the Pacific Northwest 50 million years ago. The movement of these celebrity vertebrates was captured in the soft mud on the banks of a river, one of the only depositional environments favorable for track preservation.
Sidebar: Fossils Must be Dinosaurs…
We can thank Mr. Spielberg and popular culture for the fact that most people think of dinosaurs when they think of fossils. The bone record is actually far less abundant that the plant record. While calcium rich bones and teeth fossilize well, they often do not get laid down in a situation that makes this possible.
Look around at the site today and the abundance of plants and lack of visible animal life. They are far fewer animals than plants and consequently in a setting such as this far fewer animals in the fossil record. It is the reverse at some sites, i.e. the Gobi desert and Alberta, but in the Chuckanut, this is the way it plays out.
In Alberta, most of what we find are small bone fragments from vertebrates. This colors our notions of what the world must have looked like. It shows us only one small piece of the puzzle as to what life must have been like in an area when part of the fossil record is missing.
Shaping our World
Over vast expanses of time, powerful tectonic forces have massaged the western edge of the continent, smashing together a seemingly endless number of islands to produce what we now know as North America and the Pacific Northwest.
Intuition tells us that the earth’s crust is a permanent, fixed outer shell – terra firma. Aside from the rare event of an earthquake or the eruption of Mount St. Helen’s, our world seems unchanging, the landscape constant. In fact, it has been on the move for billions of years and continues to shift each day. As the earth’s core began cooling, some 4.5 billion years ago, plates, small bits of continental crust, have become larger and smaller as they are swept up in or swept under their neighboring plates. Large chunks of the ocean floor have been uplifted, shifted and now find themselves thousands of miles in the air, part of mountain chains far from the ocean today or carved by glacial ice into valleys and basins.
Washington is Born
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; the more extreme movement has subsided laterally and continues vertically. The upthrusting of plates continues to move our mountain ranges skyward – the path of least resistance.
This dynamic movement has created the landscape we see today and helped form the fossil record that tells much of Washington’s relatively recent history – the past 50 million years.
Chuckanut Formation
The area we will be visiting along Chuckanut Drive is much younger than other parts of Washington. The fossils we will visit lived and died some 40-55 million years ago, very close to where they
are now, but in a much warmer, swampy setting.The exposures of the Chuckanut Formation were once part of a vast river delta; imagine, if you will, the bayou country of the Lower Mississippi. The siltstones, sandstones, mudstones and conglomerates of the Chuckanut Formation were laid down about 40-54 million years ago during the Eocene epoch, a time of luxuriant plant growth in the subtropical flood plain that covered much of the Pacific Northwest. This ancient wetland provided ideal conditions to preserve the many trees, shrubs & plants that thrived here.
Plants are important in the fossil record because they are more abundant and can give us a lot of information about climate, temperature, the water cycle and humidity of the region. The Chuckanut flora is made up predominantly of plants whose modern relatives live in tropical areas such as Mexico and Central America. If you are interesting in viewing a tropical paradise in your own backyard, look no further than the Chuckanut.
Images and tag lines: Glyptostrobus, the Chinese swamp cypress, is perhaps the most common plant found here. Also abundant are fossilized remains of the North American bald cypress, Taxodium; Metasequoia (dawn redwood), Lygodium (climbing fern), large Sabal (palm) and leaves from a variety of broad leaf angiosperm plants such as (witch hazel), Laurus (laurel), Ficus (fig) and Platanus (sycamore), and several other forms.
Inset: Mammal Fossils in Washington
While less abundant, evidence of the animals that called this ancient swamp home are also found here. Rare bird, reptile, and mammal tracks have been immortalized in the outcrops of the Chuckanut Formation.
Tracks of a type of archaic mammal of the Orders Pantodonta or Dinocerata (blunt foot herbivores), footprints from a small shorebird, and tracks from an early equid or webbed bird track give evidence to the vertebrates that inhabited the swamps, lakes and river ways of the Pacific Northwest 50 million years ago. The movement of these celebrity vertebrates was captured in the soft mud on the banks of a river, one of the only depositional environments favorable for track preservation.
Sidebar: Fossils Must be Dinosaurs…
We can thank Mr. Spielberg and popular culture for the fact that most people think of dinosaurs when they think of fossils. The bone record is actually far less abundant that the plant record. While calcium rich bones and teeth fossilize well, they often do not get laid down in a situation that makes this possible.
Look around at the site today and the abundance of plants and lack of visible animal life. They are far fewer animals than plants and consequently in a setting such as this far fewer animals in the fossil record. It is the reverse at some sites, i.e. the Gobi desert and Alberta, but in the Chuckanut, this is the way it plays out.
In Alberta, most of what we find are small bone fragments from vertebrates. This colors our notions of what the world must have looked like. It shows us only one small piece of the puzzle as to what life must have been like in an area when part of the fossil record is missing.
Tuesday 27 January 2009
In Search of Ancient BC - Volume I
In Search of Ancient BC - Volume I by Barbara Huck, Heidi Henderson & Philip Torrens
"Once, parts of British Columbia lay on the far side of the Pacific. Once, its ancient seacoasts were inhabited by creatures on the threshold of evolution. Once it was populated by some of Canada's first peoples.
Today, B.C. is one of the world's most geographically varied places. But clues to its ancient past are everywhere, in its mountains and arid valleys, along its lakeshores and seacoasts.
For the first time, the geological, paleontological and archaeological wonders of southern B.C. are gathered in one place. With hundreds of color photographs, maps and drawings, In Search of Ancient British Columbia presents an accessible, route-oriented approach for today's time travellers, creating an indispensable guide to the forces that have shaped the spirit of the land."
Heartland Books is a Winnipeg-based publisher of history, heritage, travel and non-fiction. I look forward to Volume II covering the northern regions. - review of In Search of Ancient BC
Wednesday 21 January 2009
KIBBEE LAKE
Paddling in the rain, I notice bits of mica in the water, playing in the light and the rock change here to greywacke, argillite, phyllite and schist. Past Lanezi, we continue onto Sandy Lake, where old growth cedars line the south-facing slopes to our left and grey limestone, shale and dolostone line the shore. Mottled in with the rock, we sneak up on very convincing stumps posing as large mammals. Picking up the Cariboo River again, we follow it as it flows into Babcock Lake, an area edged with Lower Cambrian limestone, shale and argillite. At the time these rocks were laid down, the Earth was seeing our earliest relatives, the first chordates entering the geologic scene.
Tuesday 13 January 2009
Friday 9 January 2009
Thursday 1 January 2009
ON YOUR KNEES - PTEROSAURS TOOK FLIGHT ON ALL FOURS
Pterosaurs took flight using all fours, a discovery that flies in the face of previous research on the ancient reptiles, a new study says.
Two of the giant creatures' "legs" were extremely strong wings, which when folded, created "knuckles" that allowed the animals to walk and jump (above left, the pterosaur known as Hatzegotpteryx in an artist's rendering).
The way a bird lifts off—using two legs—doesn't make sense for pterosaurs, which would have had to heave their 500 pounds (227 kilograms) airborne using only their hind legs, the study says.
Instead, the "remarkably strong" animals apparently made a leaping launch in less than a second from flat ground, with no aid from wind or ledges.
"Most people are familiar with images of pterosaurs as very skinny, almost emaciated-looking things—basically a hang glider with teeth," study author Michael B. Habib, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told National Geographic News. "They're actually built a lot more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than Urkel."
Habib compared bone strength in 20 species of modern birds and 3 species of pterosaurs to develop the new model, announced yesterday by the journal Zitteliana.
The finding is also consistent with the idea that bigger animals require more overall brawn to power their movement, Habib added.
"We put V8 engines in our biggest, heaviest cars, not V4s, like the one in my Camry."
— Story sourced from National Geographic, Christine Dell'Amore
Tuesday 30 December 2008
Tuesday 23 December 2008
Wednesday 17 December 2008
Thursday 20 November 2008
Monday 17 November 2008
Sunday 16 November 2008
Saturday 15 November 2008
Sunday 26 October 2008
Tuesday 21 October 2008
Friday 17 October 2008
Saturday 4 October 2008
GOLDEN PEEKS AT RHODESIAN
When my little golden retriever, Meadow, was just a pup, I took her to the dog part where she played the day away with a gorgeous rhodesian ridgeback. Later that year, I let her pick a rhodesian puppy out of a litter and that is how we came to have my beautiful boy Kane. I love this shot.
Sunday 28 September 2008
Tuesday 9 September 2008
DINOSAURS VS. CROCODILIAN UPSTARTS -- A BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL
Dinosaurs, long hailed as the rulers of the Triassic almost lost the title belt to a group of crocodilian upstarts, the crurotarsans. In a short lived battle for survival, geologically speaking, the two groups ran head to head for about thirty million years. The Crurotarsi or "cross-ankles" as they are affectionately known, are a group of archosaurs - formerly known as Pseudosuchians when paleontologist Paul Serono renamed them for their node-based clade in 1991
Sunday 17 August 2008
Friday 8 August 2008
Friday 11 July 2008
Friday 4 July 2008
Saturday 28 June 2008
Tuesday 24 June 2008
2008-10-12 - British Columbia, Canada: danneggiato sito dell’Eocene (fossil site damaged) Fossil hunters run amok and the B.C. government sits idle S
Reprinted from the Vancouver Sun, Published: Friday, October 10, 2008
While my writing is referenced, I did was not contacted for the article and did not provide comment.
A fossil bed of global importance is being irreparably damaged by commercial fossil hunters operating with provincial government approval, say leading scientists.
And scientists’ letters to a series of cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats show that although the province is finally seeking someone to monitor the site, it has been aware of the concerns for almost a decade.
The operations take place under provincial regulations.
One letter likened what’s been going on to “wrapping fish in the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
The McAbee site between Kamloops and Cache Creek is a 51-million-year-old lake bed that yields exquisitely preserved fossils from the early Eocene epoch. Scientists say it holds answers critical to our present-day understanding of how plants and animals adapt to rapid climate change.
The Eocene is known for its diversity of large and exotic mammals, among them a carnivorous ungulate. The scientific value of the McAbee site, however, is its vast array of lesser-known plant, insect, fish and bird species that flourished when the world was much warmer and palms grew in what’s now Alaska.
Tree leaves, flowers and pollen fell into the water, sank into the mud along with now-extinct insect and fish species and, layer by layer over millions of years, created a stunning fossilized record of a lost world that may hold information crucial to survival in ours.
It’s the diversity of the site that permits scientists to collect large assemblages of fossil specimens preserved in vertical layers of shale — the site’s “stratigraphy” — and enables them to study their evolution over long periods of time.
The Eocene is vital for scientific study because it was in this time that the evolutionary ancestors of many modern animals, insects and plants first appeared.
But five of Canada’s leading paleontologists have written to the provincial government protesting that the stratigraphic integrity of the site is being destroyed by the use of heavy equipment in the hunt for individual specimens prized for commercial sale.
“We are writing to you to express our concern that an important British Columbia heritage site is currently being dismantled and sold to the highest bidder,” the scientists said in a March 2, 2007 letter to Charlie Wyse, the Liberal MLA for Cariboo South.
“This important fossil locality is currently under mineral claim by fossil dealers, has been extensively worked, and is being rapidly destroyed.”
The letter, one of a number going back as far as 2002, advised the province that individual fossil specimens from the McAbee site were for sale on the Internet.
The letter was signed by James Haggart, chair of the B.C. Paleontological Alliance, Rolf Mathewes of Simon Fraser University, James Basinger at the University of Saskatchewan, David Greenwood at Brandon University and Bruce Archibald, a PhD candidate at Harvard University.
Archibald, now a post-doctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University, has done extensive research on the McAbee fossils.
He wrote again on Sept. 11, 2008, this time to Stan Hagen, minister of agriculture and lands, to inform the government that he had just visited the McAbee site.
“I was absolutely shocked to see the amount of new destruction present,” Archibald wrote. “In fact, the richest beds containing the most finely preserved and most diverse fossils are now completely destroyed, or very nearly so. It is quite clear that degradation of the site has greatly accelerated since I visited it last year before the claimholders signed the current agreement with your ministry supposedly defining their appropriate stewardship of the site.”
shume@islandnet.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
————————————————————————————-
Additional info:
Site description: http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Fossil_Sites/mcabee.htm
Scientific info: by Heidi Henderson blog
Fossil tour: http://www.dll-fossils.com/
Fossils for sale: http://www.fossilscapes.com/plants/plantfossils1.htm
Ottobre 12, 2008 - Pubblicato da Giuseppe Buono | A - Paleontologia, G - America Northern, P - Geositi, P - Paleobotanica, T - Eocene, Z - Commercio illegale | fossili, Canada, Eocene, fossils, fossilien, British Columbia, danneggiato, fossil site, damaged | Nessun Commento
Non c’è ancora nessun commento.
Thursday 12 June 2008
Monday 2 June 2008
SALMON: RETURN TO SENDER
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.
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.
Thursday 15 May 2008
:: Dragon in the Rocks :: The Early Years of Mary Anning ::
Dragon in the Rocks. A Story Based on the Childhood of Early Paleontologist Mary Anning
Toronto: Owl/Greey de Pencier, 1992. [32] p.ISBN 0-920775-76-4
Mary Anning (1799-1847)/biography – Paleontology/England/19th century
Looking to inspire a young mind to the wonders of our world? Consider a new picture book for young readers from Owl Press. This lovely new book shares the early years of Mary Anning - a simple tale of curiosity and determination within the wider context of an historical geological discovery.
Twelve-year-old Mary Anning had always enjoyed collecting fossils with her father, an amateur collector, who before he died, taught her the techniques of chipping and separating fossils from rocks.
Mary's father also told her of a dragon skeleton he had once seen in a cave near their home in Lyme Regis on the southern coast of England. One day the opportunity arose to visit the cave herself, and subsequently she spent many months chipping, numbering and packing up the fossil pieces of the 26-foot-long ichthyosaur skeleton, which has now been on display at the Natural History Museum in London for nearly 200 years.
Although the story ends with the visit of important scientists to her home to see her rebuilt skeleton, children may well be inspired to learn more about the interests and life of this unsung heroine and about paleontology.
Looking for more inspiration on the significant finds of other young paleontologists... look to Tumbler Ridge and the discovery by Daniel Helm of a significant dinosaur trackway that inspired a community or to Vancouver Island and the tale of paleontology in beautiful Courtenay where the Trask family found one of BC's most famous marine reptiles.
Visit http://www.bcfossils.ca/ and learn more!
Sea Dragons of the Cretaceous
:: Free Fossil Lecture & Display this Victoria Day Long Weekend:
The Vancouver Paleontological Society hosts a talk this Saturday, May 2nd, 2PM, at the Vancouver Museum/Planetarium.
- The feature speaker will be Timon Bullard on Sea Dragons of Cretaceous Seas. Come hear about the large marine reptiles who swam our waters millions of years ago!Vancouver Museum/Planetarium, 1100 Chestnut Street (off Cornwall in Kitsilano).
- All talks are free and open to the public. Fossils will also be on display. Visit http://www.bcfossils.ca/ to learn about all the paleontological activities in BC.
Come on down and bring a friend!
Tuesday 13 May 2008
:: ARMORED BEAST :: DESMATOSUCHUS ::
A detailed description of Desmatosuchus
:: Description of new material of the aetosaur Desmatosuchus spurensis (Archosauria: Suchia) from the Chinle Formation of Arizona and a revision of the genus DesmatosuchusWilliam Parker, PaleoBios 28(1):1–40, May 12, 2008Abstract: A new specimen of Desmatosuchus from northeastern Arizona (MNA V9300) preserves almost the entire vertebral column, the pelvis, and the majority of the armor carapace, allowing for an unprecedented detailed description of the taxon.
Articulation and reconstruction of the armor carapace demonstrates that previous reconstructions of Desmatosuchus are erroneous in the orientation and position of the lateral armor. Lateral plates of the anterior dorsal region possess low rounded knobs instead of developed spines.
The dorsal flange of the lateral plates of the dorsal region is longer than the lateral or ventral flange making the carapace transversely wider than previously thought. As a result, previous reconstructions articulate the lateral armor not only backwards but also on the wrong sides of the body. Posterior presacral vertebrae are extremely robust and possess fused ribs and the last presacral vertebra has been fused to the sacrum, a character that may be taxonomically useful.
A prefrontal bone is also present in Desmatosuchus, contrary to previous descriptions. Reinvestigation of the genus Desmatosuchus suggests that there are only two valid species, D. spurensis and D. smalli. The lectotype of Episcoposaurus haplocerus is referable to Desmatosuchus but indeterminate at the species level, and therefore represents a nomen dubium.
Accordingly, D. spurensis is reinstated as the type species of Desmatosuchus and the new Arizona specimen is assigned to this taxon. Acaenasuchus geoffreyi, a purported juvenile form of Desmatosuchus, is not referable to Desmatosuchus.
:: Description of new material of the aetosaur Desmatosuchus spurensis (Archosauria: Suchia) from the Chinle Formation of Arizona and a revision of the genus DesmatosuchusWilliam Parker, PaleoBios 28(1):1–40, May 12, 2008Abstract: A new specimen of Desmatosuchus from northeastern Arizona (MNA V9300) preserves almost the entire vertebral column, the pelvis, and the majority of the armor carapace, allowing for an unprecedented detailed description of the taxon.
Articulation and reconstruction of the armor carapace demonstrates that previous reconstructions of Desmatosuchus are erroneous in the orientation and position of the lateral armor. Lateral plates of the anterior dorsal region possess low rounded knobs instead of developed spines.
The dorsal flange of the lateral plates of the dorsal region is longer than the lateral or ventral flange making the carapace transversely wider than previously thought. As a result, previous reconstructions articulate the lateral armor not only backwards but also on the wrong sides of the body. Posterior presacral vertebrae are extremely robust and possess fused ribs and the last presacral vertebra has been fused to the sacrum, a character that may be taxonomically useful.
A prefrontal bone is also present in Desmatosuchus, contrary to previous descriptions. Reinvestigation of the genus Desmatosuchus suggests that there are only two valid species, D. spurensis and D. smalli. The lectotype of Episcoposaurus haplocerus is referable to Desmatosuchus but indeterminate at the species level, and therefore represents a nomen dubium.
Accordingly, D. spurensis is reinstated as the type species of Desmatosuchus and the new Arizona specimen is assigned to this taxon. Acaenasuchus geoffreyi, a purported juvenile form of Desmatosuchus, is not referable to Desmatosuchus.
Sunday 11 May 2008
Friday 9 May 2008
Sunday 27 April 2008
A Wee Beasty for Betsy
I was delighted to hear that one of our long lost friends and renowned paleontologist, Betsy Nicholls would be honored with a new namesake out of Alberta - a mighty marine hunter from our Cretaceous Seas... This newly described plesiosaur, Nichollsia borealis, has been named for the late Elizabeth (Betsy) Nicholls, a renowned paleontologist from the University of Calgary. Betsy holds a special place in the hearts of the paleo community, particularly those in Alberta and British Columbia who had the opportunity to work with her over the years.
She greatly broadened our understanding of the large marine reptiles who swam our ancient seas in describing one of the largest marine reptiles ever to be found. Alberta is the home of the dinosaurs, but it was Betsy’s work that opened up our eyes to the great marine beasties that continue to be unearthed over much of northern British Columbia…
Saturday 15 March 2008
Tuesday 4 March 2008
Tuesday 19 February 2008
Sunshine & Rain: Bowron's Lanezi and Sandy Lakes
Like most mountainous areas, Bowron makes its own weather system and it appears you get everything in a 24-hour period. In fact, whatever weather you are enjoying seems to change 40 minutes later; good for rain, bad for sun. Wisps of cloud that seemed light and airy only hours early have become dark.
Careful to hug the shore in our kayaks, we are ready for a quick escape from lightening as thundershowers break. Paddling in the rain, I notice bits of mica in the water, playing in the light and the rock change here to greywacke, argillite, phyllite and schist. Past Lanezi, we continue onto Sandy Lake, where old growth cedars line the south-facing slopes to our left and grey limestone, shale and dolostone line the shore. Mottled in with the rock, we sneak up on very convincing stumps posing as large mammals.
Picking up the Cariboo River again, we follow it as it flows into Babcock Lake, an area edged with Lower Cambrian limestone, shale and argillite. At the time these rocks were laid down, the Earth was seeing our earliest relatives, the first chordates entering the geologic scene.
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