TREASURES OF CANADA: TRENT RIVER PALAEONTOLOGY

Dan Bowen, Chair, VIPS, Trent River

The rocks that make up the Trent River on Vancouver Island were laid down south of the equator as small, tropical islands. They rode across the Pacific heading north and slightly east over the past 85 million years to where we find them today.

The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. And it is massive. At 103 million km2 (40 million sq mi), it is the largest tectonic plate and continues to grow fed by volcanic eruptions that piggyback onto its trailing edge.

This relentless expansion pushes the Pacific Plate into the North American Plate. The pressure subducts it beneath our continent where it then melts back into the earth. Plate tectonics are slow but powerful forces. 

The island chains that rode the plates across the Pacific smashed into our coastline and slowly built the province of British Columbia. And because each of those islands had a different origin, they create pockets of interesting and diverse geology.

It is these islands that make up the Insular Belt — a physio-geological region on the northwestern North American coast. It consists of three major island groups — and many smaller islands — that stretches from southern British Columbia up into Alaska and the Yukon. These bits of islands on the move arrived from the Late Cretaceous through the Eocene — and continues to this day.

The rocks that form the Insular Superterrane are allochthonous, meaning they are not related to the rest of the North American continent. The rocks we walk over along the Trent River are distinct from those we find throughout the rest of Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, the rest of the province of British Columbia and completely foreign to those we find next door in Alberta.

To discover what we do find on the Trent takes only a wee stroll, a bit of digging and time to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. The first geological forays to Vancouver Island were to look for coal deposits, the profitable remains of ancient forests that could be burned to the power industry.

Jim Monger and Charlie Ross of the Geological Survey of Canada both worked to further our knowledge of the complex geology of the Comox Basin. They were at the cutting edge of west coast geology in the 1970s. It was their work that helped tease out how and where the rocks we see along the Trent today were formed and made their way north.

We know from their work that by 85 million years ago, the Insular Superterrane had made its way to what is now British Columbia. 

The lands were forested much as they are now but by extinct genera and families. The fossil remains of trees similar to oak, poplar, maple and ash can be found along the Trent and Vancouver Island. We also see the lovely remains of flowering plants such as Cupanities crenularis, figs and breadfruit.

Heading up the river, you come to a delineation zone that clearly marks the contact between the dark grey marine shales and mudstones of the Haslam Formation where they meet the sandstones of the Comox Formation. Fossilized material is less abundant in the Comox sandstones but still contains some interesting specimens. Here you begin to see fossilized wood and identifiable fossil plant material.

Further upstream, there is a small tributary, Idle Creek, where you can find more of this terrestrial material in the sandy shales. As you walk up, you see identifiable fossil plants beneath your feet and jungle-like, overgrown moss-covered, snarly trees all around you.

Walking west from the Trent River Falls at the bottom, you pass the infamous Ammonite Alley, where you can find Mesopuzosia sp. and Kitchinites sp. of the Upper Cretaceous (Santonian), Haslam Formation. Minding the slippery green algae covering some of the river rocks, you can see the first of the Polytychoceras vancouverense zone.

Continuing west, you reach the first of two fossil turtle sites on the river — amazingly, one terrestrial and one marine. If you continue, you come to the Inland Island Highway.

The Trent River has yielded some very interesting marine specimens, and significant terrestrial finds. We have found a wonderful terrestrial helochelydrid turtle, Naomichelys speciosa, and the caudal vertebrae of a Hadrosauroid dinosaur. Walking down from the Hadrosaur site you come to the site of the fossil ratfish find — one of the ocean's oddest fish.

Ratfish, Hydrolagus Collie, are chimaera found in the north-eastern Pacific Ocean today. The fossil specimen from the Trent would be considered large by modern standards as it is a bruiser in comparison to his modern counterparts. 

This robust fellow had exceptionally large eyes and sex organs that dangled enticingly between them. You mock, but there are many ratfish who would differ. While inherently sexy by ratfish standards, this fellow was not particularly tasty to their ancient marine brethren (or humans today) — so not hugely sought after as a food source or prey.

A little further again from the ratfish site we reach the contact of the two Formations. The rocks here have travelled a long way to their current location. With them, we peel away the layers of the geologic history of both the Comox Valley and the province of British Columbia.

The Trent River is not far from the Puntledge, a river whose banks have also revealed many wonderful fossil specimens. The Puntledge is also the name used by the K'ómoks First Nation to describe themselves. They have lived here since time immemorial. Along with Puntledge, they refer to themselves as Sahtloot, Sasitla and Ieeksun.

References: Note on the occurrence of the marine turtle Desmatochelys (Reptilia: Chelonioidea) from the Upper Cretaceous of Vancouver Island Elizabeth L. Nicholls Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (1992) 29 (2): 377–380. https://doi.org/10.1139/e92-033; References: Chimaeras - The Neglected Chondrichthyans". Elasmo-research.org. Retrieved 2017-07-01.

Directions: If you're keen to explore the area, park on the side of Highway 19 about three kilometres south of Courtenay and hike up to the Trent River. Begin to look for parking about three kilometres south of the Cumberland Interchange. There is a trail that leads from the highway down beneath the bridge which will bring you to the Trent River's north side.

FERRISAURUS SUSTUTENSIS: A NEW NON-AVIAN DINOSAUR IN BC

Say hello to Ferrisaurus sustutensis —  “A new leptoceratopsid dinosaur from Maastrichtian-aged deposits of the Sustut Basin, northern British Columbia, Canada."

You may recall Dr. Victoria Arbour, curator of palaeontology at the Royal BC Museum from her work on ankylosaurs & that interesting specimen from Hornby Island thought to be a pterosaur but further study revealed to be a saurodontid fish, an ambush predator with very sharp serrated teeth and elongate, torpedo-like body. Not a pterosaur but still a massively exciting find. Arbour was very gracious about the new interpretation, taking it in stride. She has since gone on to name this partial ornithischian dinosaur from Sustut Basin, as well as the ankylosaurs Zuul, Zaraapelta, Crichtonpelta, and Ziapelta. She's been a busy bee.

For this latest find, she’s partnered up & published her findings with David Evans from the Royal Ontario Museum in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PeerJ - the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences last year. Their paper describes this partial dinosaur skeleton found amongst the inhospitable boreal forests and folded rock of the Canadian Cordillera near the Sustut Basin of northern British Columbia, Canada.

The first bones were collected by geologist Kenny F. Larsen who was surveying for uranium along the then in-construction BC Rail line along the Sustut River. The bones were later donated to Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia then accessioned by the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, BC. The skeleton includes parts of the pectoral girdles, left forelimb, left hindlimb, and right pes. Their rationale for a new species distinguished from other named leptoceratopsids is based on the proportions of the ulna and pedal phalanges.

This specimen was previously described in 2008 as an indeterminate small-bodied, bipedal neornithischian, possibly representing either a pachycephalosaur or a basal ornithopod similar to Thescelosaurus. With more material to work with, Arbour and Evans reinterpreted the remains as a leptoceratopsid ceratopsian, Ferrisaurus sustutensis, gen. et. sp. nov.

Figure 2: Preserved elements of RBCM P900

The news deserves some fanfare. While Alberta, our sister province to the east is practically littered with dinosaur remains, they are relatively rare in BC. This is the first unique non-avian dinosaur species reported from British Columbia.

It has been placed, within a reasonably resolved phylogenetic context, with Ferrisaurus recovered as more closely related to Leptoceratops than Montanoceratops. At 68.2–67.2 Ma in age, Ferrisaurus falls between, and slightly overlaps with, both Montanoceratops and Leptoceratops, and represents a western range extension for Laramidian leptoceratopsids. Leptoceratopsidae is an extinct family of neoceratopsian dinosaurs from Asia, North America and Europe. They resembled and were closely related to, other neoceratopsians, such as Protoceratopsidae and Ceratopsidae, but they are more primitive and generally smaller.

Figure 3: Pectoral Elements of Laramidian leptoceratopsids

Back in 2017, Arbour led an expedition to the Sustut River in Northern British Columbia to relocate the site where Ferrisaurus was originally discovered forty-six years earlier in 1971 along the BC Rail line near the intersection of Birdflat Creek and the Sustut River. The expedition was a huge success as the team found the remains of this new species of dinosaur and also recovered several species of fossil plants.

The fossil plant finds may not seem that exciting in comparison to a dinosaur but Cretaceous plants in BC are also relatively rare. Most of our best fossil plant sites are Eocene, the ancient lakebed sites at McAbee and Princeton — so a good 15 million or so years earlier.

During that expedition, the team recovered a fragment of a large Cretaceous terrestrial trionychoid turtle Basilemys from the family Nanhsiungchelyidae near the confluence of Birdflat Creek and the Sustut River. This largely North American turtle along with the plants will allow us to make correlations with terrestrial finds from other sites including those from the Nanaimo group, the inland island construction sites and the Trent River on Vancouver Island and Horseshoe Canyon in southwestern Alberta. Jordan Mallon and Donald Brinkman have done some good work on the Basilemys morrinensis from the Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation. The Sustut Basin turtle and plant remains have been accessioned into the Royal BC Museum’s collections in Victoria.

It wasn't until last summer that Arbour was able to extract more of this dinosaur and not all of it as their field season was shortened by a cold snap that brought snow and ice, freezing the ground they were working in the high alpine. Arbour plans to continue her work searching for dinosaur fossils in the high alpine plateaus of northern British Columbia. A fresh grant this year from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) will help pave the way for both her and some summer students to continue their fieldwork.

Reference: Arbour VM, Evans DC. 2019. A new leptoceratopsid dinosaur from Maastrichtian-aged deposits of the Sustut Basin, northern British Columbia, Canada. PeerJ 7:e7926 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7926. Here's a link to the paper: https://peerj.com/articles/7926/

Figure 1: RBCM P900, the holotype of Ferrisaurus sustutensis, was collected along the BC Rail line near the intersection of Birdflat Creek and the Sustut River in 1971, in the Sustut Basin of northern British Columbia, Canada. Map modified from Evenchick et al. (2003).

Figure 2: Preserved elements of RBCM P900, holotype of Ferrisaurus sustutensis, in white (gray represents missing parts of incomplete bones). RBCM P900 includes a partial right coracoid, partial left scapular blade, complete left radius, partial left ulna, partial left tibia, fibula, and coossified astragalus and ?calcaneum, partial left metatarsals I-IV, and digits III (phalanges 2–4) and IV (phalanges 2–5) of the right pes.

Figure 3: Pectoral elements of RBCM P900, holotype of Ferrisaurus sustutensis, compared to other Laramidian leptoceratopsids. (A) Fragmentary right coracoid of RBCM P900 in lateral view, compared to (B) complete right scapulocoracoid of CMN 8889, Leptoceratops gracilis, lateral view centered on coracoid with scapula in oblique view. Fragmentary left scapular blade of RBCM P900 in (C) lateral and (D) medial view, compared to (E) left scapula of MOR 300, Cerasinops hodgskissi in medial view, and (F) left scapula of TCM 2003.1.9, Prenoceratops pieganensis in lateral view. Abbreviations: sp, sternal process.

PTEROSAURS OF HORNBY ISLAND

If you could travel through time and go back to observe our ancient skies, you would see massive pterosaurs — huge, winged flying reptiles of the extinct order Pterosauria — cruising along with you. They soared our skies during most of the Mesozoic — from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to 66 million years ago). 

By the end of the Cretaceous, they had grown to giants and one of their brethren, Quetzalcoatlus, a member of the family Azhdarchidae, boasts being the largest known flying animal that ever lived. They were the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight. Their wings were formed by a membrane of skin, muscle, and other tissues stretching from the ankles to a dramatically lengthened fourth finger.

We divide their lineage into two major types: basal pterosaurs and pterodactyloids. Basal pterosaurs (also called 'non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs' or ‘rhamphorhynchoids’) were smaller animals with fully toothed jaws and long tails. Their wide wing membranes connected to their hind legs. This would have allowed them some manoeuvrability on the ground, but with an awkward sprawling posture. They were better climbers with flexible joint anatomy and strong claws. Basal pterosaurs preferred to dine on insects and small vertebrates.

Later pterosaurs (pterodactyloids) evolved many sizes, shapes, and lifestyles. Pterodactlyoids had narrower wings with free hind limbs, highly reduced tails, and long necks with large heads. On the ground, pterodactyloids walked better than their earlier counterparts, manoeuvring all four limbs smoothly with an upright posture. They walked standing plantigrade on the hind feet and folding the wing finger upward to walk on the three-fingered "hand." These later pterosaurs were more nimble. They could take off from the ground, run and wade and swim. Their jaws had horny beaks and some of these later groups lacked the teeth of earlier lineages. Some groups developed elaborate head crests that were likely used to attract mates' sexy-pterosaur style.

So can we or have we found pterosaurs on Hornby Island? The short answer is yes.

Collishaw Point, known locally as Boulder Point, Hornby Island

Hornby Island is a lovely lush, island in British Columbia's northern Gulf Islands. It was formed from sediments of the upper Nanaimo Group which are also widely exposed on adjacent Denman Island and the southern Gulf Islands.

Peter Mustard, a geologist from the Geologic Survey of Canada, did considerable work on the geology of the island. It has a total stratigraphic thickness of 1350 m of upper Nanaimo Group marine sandstone, conglomerate and shale. 

These are partially exposed in the Campanian to the lower Maastrichtian outcrops at Collishaw Point on the northwest side of Hornby Island. Four formations underlie the island from oldest to youngest, and from west to east: the Northumberland, Geoffrey, Spray and Gabriola.

During the upper Cretaceous, between ~90 to 65 Ma, sediments derived from the Coast Belt to the east and the Cascades to the southeast poured seaward to the west and northwest into what was the large ancestral Georgia Basin. This major forearc basin was situated between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia. The rocks you find here originated far to the south in Baja California and are the right age and type of sediment for a pterosaur find. But are we California dreaming?

Upper Cretaceous Nanaimo Group Fossil Concretion

Well, truth be told, we were with one of the potential pterosaur finds from Hornby. It wasn't just hopeful thinking that had the west coast in a paleo uproar many ago when Sharon Hubbard of the Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society found what looked very much like a pterosaur.

Right time period. Right location. And, we have found them here in the past.

Sandy McLachlan found the first definitive pterosaur, an azhdarchid, back in 2008.

But was Sharon's find a pterosaur?

Victoria Arbour, a Canadian evolutionary biologist and palaeontologist working as a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto and Royal Ontario Museum, certainly thought so. 

While Arbour is an expert on ankylosaurs, our lumbering armoured dinosaurs friends, she has studied pterosaurs and participated in the naming of Gwawinapterus from Hornby Island. 

But here's the thing — bony material encased in stone and let to cement for millions of years can be tricky.

While this fossil find was initially described as a very late-surviving member of the pterosaur group Istiodactylidae, further examination cast doubt on the identification. Once more detail was revealed the remains were published as being those of a saurodontid fish, an ambush predator with very sharp serrated teeth and elongate, torpedo-like bodies that grew up to two meters. Not a pterosaur but still a massively exciting find. Arbour was very gracious at the renaming, taking it in stride. She has since gone on to name a partial ornithischian dinosaur from Sustut Basin, as well as the ankylosaurs Zuul, Zaraapelta, Crichtonpelta, and Ziapelta. But she may have another shot at a pterosaur.

Dan Bowen, Chair, VIPS. Photo: Deanna Steptoe Graham

In 2019, Dan Bowen, Chair of the Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society and a truly awesome possum, found some very interesting bones in concretion on Hornby. 

The concretion was nestled amongst the 72 million-year-old grey shales of the Northumberland Formation, Campanian to the lower Maastrichtian, part of the Cretaceous Nanaimo Group from Collishaw Point.

The site is known as Boulder Point to the locals and it has been a popular fossil destination for many years. It is the same site where Sharon made her find years earlier.

The concretion contains four articulated vertebrae that looked to be fish at first glance. Jay Hawley, a local fossil enthusiast was asked to prep the block to reveal more details. Once the matrix was largely removed the vertebrae inside were revealed to be bird bones, not fish and not another saurodontid as originally thought. Palaeontologist Victoria Arbour was called back in to put her keen lens on the discovery. 

You will appreciate that she took a good long look at the specimen and confirmed it to be a bird or a pterosaur. We still do not have confirmation on which it is as yet. The delicate bony material is very flattened with a very shallow u-shape on the bottom but will need additional study to confirm if the skies above California were once home to a great pterosaur who died, was fossilized then rode our tectonic plates to now call Hornby home. It is a great story and one that I am keen to follow.

References: To learn more about the azhdarchid remains found by Sandy McLachlan, check out the paper by Martin-Silverston et al. 2016.

DIPLOMOCERAS OF HORNBY / JA-DAI-AICH

Diplomoceras sp.

This gorgeous cream and brown big beast of a heteromorph, Diplomoceras (Diplomoceras) sp., (Hyatt, 1900) was found within the 72 million-year-old sediments of the upper Nanaimo Group on the northern Gulf Island of Hornby in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. 

The site is known as Boulder Point to the locals and it has been a popular fossil destination for many years. It is the home of the K'ómoks First Nation, who called the island Ja-dai-aich.

Many of the fossils found at this locality are discovered in concretions rolled smooth by time and tide. The concretions you find on the beach are generally round or oval in shape and are made up of hard, compacted sedimentary rock. 

If you are lucky, when you split these nodules you are rewarded with a fossil hidden within. That is not always the case but the rewards are worth the effort. 

These past few years, many new and wonderful specimens have been unearthed — particularly by members of the Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society. 

And so it was in the first warm days of early summer last year. Three members of the Vancouver Palaeontological Society excavated this 100 cm long fossil specimen over two days in June of 2020. The specimen was not in concretion but rather embedded in the hard sintered shale matrix beneath their feet. It was angled slightly downward towards the shoreline and locked within the rolling shale beds of the island. 

Diplomoceratidae (Spath, 1926) are often referred to as the paperclip ammonites. They are in the family of ammonites included in the order Ammonitida in the Class Cephalopoda and are found within marine offshore to shallow subtidal Cretaceous — 99.7 to 66.043 million-year-old — sediments worldwide. 

I was reading with interest this morning about a new find published by Muramiya and Shigeta in December 2020 of a new heteromorph ammonoid Sormaites teshioensis gen. et sp. nov. (Diplomoceratidae) described from the upper Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) in the Nakagawa area, Hokkaido, northern Japan. This lovely has a shell surface ornamented with simple, straight, sharp-tipped ribs throughout ontogeny, but infrequent flared ribs and constrictions occur on later whorls. Excluding its earliest whorls, its coiling and ornamentation are very similar to Scalarites mihoensis and Sc. densicostatus from the Turonian to Coniacian in Hokkaido and Sakhalin, suggesting that So. teshioensis was probably derived from one of these taxa in the Northwest Pacific during middle to late Turonian.

Much like the long-lived geoducks living in Puget Sound today, studies of Diplomoceras suggest that members of this family could live to be over 200 years old — a good 40-years longer than a geoduck but not nearly as long-lived as the extant bivalve Arctica islandica that reach 405 to 410 years in age. 

Along with this jaw-dropper of a heteromorph, the same group found an Actinosepia, gladius — internal hard body part found in many cephalopods of a Vampyropod. Vampyropods are members of the proposed group Vampyropoda — equivalent to the superorder Octopodiformes — which includes vampire squid and octopus.

The upper Nanaimo Group is a mix of marine sandstone, conglomerate and shale. These are partially exposed in the Campanian to the lower Maastrichtian outcrops at Collishaw Point on the northwest side of Hornby Island.

Along with fossil crabs, shark teeth, bivalves and occasional rare and exquisite saurodontid fish, an ambush predator with very sharp serrated teeth and elongate, torpedo-like body — we also find three heteromorph ammonite families are represented within the massive, dark-grey mudstones interlaminated and interbedded with siltstone and fine-grained sandstone of the upper Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) strata of the Northumberland Formation exposed here: Baculitidae, Diplomoceratidae and Nostoceratidae. 

A variety of species are distinguished within these families, of which only three taxa – Baculites occidentalis (Meek, 1862), Diplomoceras (Diplomoceras) cylindraceum (Defrance, 1816) and Nostoceras (Nostoceras) hornbyense (Whiteaves, 1895), have been studied and reported previously. 

Over the last decade, large new collections by many members of the Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society and palaeontologists working at the Geologic Survey of Canada, along with a renewed look at previous collections have provided new taxonomic and morphometric data for the Hornby Island ammonite fauna. This renewed lens has helped shape our understanding and revamp descriptions of heteromorph taxa. Eleven taxa are recognized, including the new species Exiteloceras (Exiteloceras) densicostatum sp. nov., Nostoceras (Didymoceras?) adrotans sp. nov. and Solenoceras exornatus sp. nov. 

A great variety of shape and form exist within each group. Morphometric analyses by Sandy McLachlan and Jim Haggart of over 700 specimens unveiled the considerable phenotypic plasticity of these ammonites. They exhibit an extraordinarily broad spectrum of variability in their ornamentation and shell dimensions. 

The presence of a vibrant amateur palaeontological community on Vancouver Island made the extent of their work possible. Graham Beard, Doug Carrick, Betty Franklin, Raymond Graham, Joe Haegert, Bob Hunt, Stevi Kittleson, Kurt Morrison and Jean Sibbald are thanked for their correspondence and generosity in contributing many of the exquisite specimens featured in that study. 

These generous individuals, along with many other members of the Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society (VIPS), Vancouver Paleontological Society (VanPS), and British Columbia Paleontological Alliance (BCPA), have contributed a great deal to our knowledge of the West Coast of Canada and her geologic and palaeontological correlations to the rest of the world; notably, Dan Bowen, Rick Ross, John Fam and Pat and Mike Trask, Naomi & Terry Thomas. Their diligence in the collection, preparation and documentation of macrofossils is a reflection of the passion they have for palaeontology and their will to help shape the narrative of Earth history.

Through their efforts, a large population sample of Nostoceras (Nostoceras) hornbyense was made available and provided an excellent case study of a member of the Nostoceratidae. It was through the well-documented collection and examination of a remarkable number of nearly complete, well-preserved specimens that a re-evaluation of diagnostic traits within the genus Nostoceras was made possible. 

The north-east Pacific Nostoceras (Nostoceras) hornbyense Zone and the global Nostoceras (Nostoceras) hyatti Assemblage Zone are regarded as correlative, reinforcing a late Campanian age for the Northumberland Formation. This builds on the earlier work of individuals like Alan McGugan and others. McGugan looked at the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian and Maastrichtian) Foraminifera from the Upper Lambert and Northumberland Formations, Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada.

The Maastrichtian Bolivina incrassata fauna (upper part of Upper Lambert Formation) of Hornby Island (northern Comox Basin) is now recognized in the southern Nanaimo Basin on Gabriola and Galiano Islands. The Maastrichtian planktonic index species Globotruncana contusa occurs in the Upper Northumberland Formation of Mayne Island and Globotruncana calcarata (uppermost Campanian) occurs| in the Upper Northumberland Formation of Mayne Island and also in the Upper Lambert Formation at Manning Point on the north shore of Hornby Island (Comox Basin).

Very abundant benthonic and planktonic foraminiferal assemblages from the Upper Campanian Lower Northumberland Formation of Mayne Island enable paleoecological interpretations to be made using the Fisher diversity index, triangular plots of Texturlariina/Rotaliina/Miliolina, calcareous/agglutinated ratios, planktonic/benthonic ratios, generic models, and associated microfossils and megafossils. 

Combined with local geology and stratigraphy a relatively shallow neritic depositional environment is proposed for the Northumberland Formation in agreement with Scott but not Sliter who proposed an Outer shelf/slope environment with depths of 300 m or more.

References & further reading: Sandy M. S. McLachlan & James W. Haggart (2018) Reassessment of the late Campanian (Late Cretaceous) heteromorph ammonite fauna from Hornby Island, British Columbia, with implications for the taxonomy of the Diplomoceratidae and Nostoceratidae, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 16:15, 1247-1299, DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2017.1381651

Crickmay, C. H., and Pocock, S. A. J. 1963. Cretaceous of Vancouver, British Columbia. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, 47, pp. 1928-1942.

England, T.D.J. and R. N. Hiscott (1991): Upper Nanaimo Group and younger strata, outer Gulf Islands, southwestern British Columbia: in Current Research, Part E; Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 91-1E, p. 117-125.

McGugan, Alan. (2011). Upper Cretaceous (Campanian and Maestrichtian) Foraminifera from the Upper Lambert and Northumberland Formations, Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 16. 2263-2274. 10.1139/e79-211. 

Scott, James. (2021). Upper Cretaceous foraminifera of the Haslam, Qualicum, and Trent River formations, Vancouver Island, British Columbia /. 

Sliter, W. & Baker, RA. (1972). Cretaceous bathymetric distribution of benthic foraminifers. Journal of Foraminiferal Research - J FORAMIN RES. 2. 167-183. 10.2113/gsjfr.2.4.167. 

Spath L. F. 1926. A Monograph of the Ammonoidea of the Gault; Part VI. Palaeontographical Society London

Sullivan, Rory (4 November 2020). "Large squid-like creature that looked like a giant paperclip lived for 200 years — 68 million years ago". The Independent. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020.

Urquhart, N. & Williams, C.. (1966). Patterns in Balance of Nature. Biometrics. 22. 206. 10.2307/2528236. 

Yusuke Muramiya and Yasunari Shigeta "Sormaites, a New Heteromorph Ammonoid Genus from the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) of Hokkaido, Japan," Paleontological Research 25(1), 11-18, (30 December 2020). https://doi.org/10.2517/2020PR016.

Photos: Vancouver Island Palaeontological Society, Courtenay, British Columbia, Naomi and Terry Thomas.

OH CANADA — CANADA'S PLANNED, FUNDED, HIDDEN & ONGOING GENOCIDE

Murdered & Missing Children Art by Roy Vickers

You may be seeing orange shirts and #215 & #everychildmatters in the news, especially today as it is Canada Day. 

You likely know about the Residential School System in Canada — and also the USA. You may have heard the stories of what went on there. 

Recently, the media has been flooded by the deaths and unmarked graves of children. We weep for them as a nation. 

And you likely feel sadness or outrage for these events that feel like they should be deep in the past — except they weren't. 

The 'Indian' Residential Schools were schools built and funded by the government of Canada and run by various religious groups between 1831 (most in western Canada opened around 1860-1870s) and into the 1990s — the last closed in 1997. 

The first school to open was the Mohawk Institute Residental School in 1828. They began to receive federal funding in 1831. The last school to close was Kivalliq Hall in Rankin Inlet, in what is now Nunavut, which closed in 1997; it became an IRSSA-recognized school in 2019 following a court ruling, which is why earlier accounts describe the last school closing in 1996.

Yes, recent history. The most important question is not when were these schools built — but why were these schools built? 

To answer that we need to think about Canada as a young nation. Canada was meant to be a conquered land under British rule. The 'savages' having served their purpose in the (arguably mutually beneficial) fur trade and providing 'true novelty' in exhibitions like the 1893 Chicago World Fair, now needed to set their (silly, primitive) traditional ways aside and get on with the business of being white — or at least, dressing 'normal', speaking English (or French), adopting Western civilization practices. All primitive 'religious' paraphernalia had been stolen by this point — coppers, masks, etc. — and the practice of potlatch forbidden by law. 

The goal by the 1870s was that the Indigenous adults living at that time would be the LAST of the 'savages' and their children would be "educated = assimilated" into Western society. The churches running the schools were completely empowered to "beat them into submission" so that the children would "assimilate or die." 

So, to the world in our outward-facing messaging and in our history books, Canada did this kind and generous thing of building and funding schools to give these precious young children a much-needed education. We did this because, we as Canadians, are good guys. 

All of this is hard to believe given Canada's global image. We are the quiet, polite folk with the funny accent. What is being described sounds more like the work of the Nazi's extermination pogroms during the Second World War. 

You will be surprised to learn, then, that the term "Final Solution" was coined by Indian Affairs Superintended Duncan Campbell back in 1910 as he articulated how he envisioned solving the "Indian Problem" in Canada.

        "It is readily acknowledged that Indian children lose their natural resistance to illness by habitating so closely in these schools and that they die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is geared towards the final solution of our Indian Program." 

That statement was written by Duncan C. Scott in April 1910, in his capacity as the Superintendent of Indian Affairs to General-Major D. McKay, British Columbia's Indian Agent (Department of Indian Affairs Archives, RG 10 series).

Indian Residential Schools operated in Canada from  1831-1996

Documents (letters, internal direction by government, church documents) will be produced that show that the schools were built to deliberately separate children from their parents so that their parents, aunties, uncles and grandparents, would be the last of the savages. 

Some children and parents did want their kids to go to school for an education. And some had schools close to home that they could have or would have attended but they could not. 

Under the Indian Act of Canada, every First Nation (Metis & Inuit still had to but not under this Act) child had to attend a residential school (built far from home and run by the church) by law. 

It was illegal for these same children to attend ANY other educational institution. Why would we care where they were educated? It would actually have been more economical to have them live at home and attend school.

If education was the goal, why have this written into law?

History books will need to be amended to correct the untruths, the systemic re-writing, editing and white-washing of history. It is my hope that they include exact copies of these documents and not a paraphrased interpretation. The original wording is chilling. When you do get the chance to read the original documentation, please do.

So, 150,000 or more 'Indians' — First Nation, Inuit and Metis — were forced to attend these residential schools, not to give them an education but to deliberately strip them of their culture. It wasn't lost as a by-product of attending, it was the sole reason for their attending. 

We may find that the number exceeds 150,000 as there are pretty good Census records from that time in Canada's history. Even so, 150,000 is every child they could get their hands on from the age of 4-16 living in our country. 

We used to paint a picture that children were lucky to attend and that their parents wanted them to attend. This, too, is a lie. It was illegal not to send your children. Children were beaten, tortured and raped. Beaten for speaking their native tongue. 

It was illegal to protest your children being taken. It was illegal to even seek legal advice regarding the matter. 

We feel sadness today for the few hundred unmarked graves we are finding. This mild 'there-there, that is tragic, lets put up a nice headstone, take a few silent minutes and enjoy a cup of tea... and move on' attitude by our government is not surprising. 

We're Canada. We're used to being the good guys. We wrote our history to be the good guys. 

But this was G.E.N.O.C.I.D.E. — organized, premeditated, structured and funded genocide in partnership between the church and the government of Canada. 

"Genocide —  the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group."

Canada was dealing with "the Indian problem" back in the 1800s. Lands were set aside (very similar to how we treat animals in a zoo...) and groups of First Nations, Inuit and Metis were moved onto these 'reserves.' 

Now, if you want to wage a successful war, you either need to kill everyone outright (though spare a few as slaves) or inter-marry with the population. Given that the first forays by settlers were to trade, it was the latter strategy that was chosen — except it was too slow.

I have more direct quotes that I will dig out to share with you about our governments' views on "the Indian Problem" and the deliberate 'assimilate or die pogrom' as delivered through the Residential School System — think of it as Smallpox 2.0 (infected people and blankets were sent into communities to infect and kill).

We feel sad for the #215 and the hundreds of unmarked graves we are finding. I think the death toll exceeds 50,000. Not all of those graves will be unmarked. Some of those children are in local cemeteries, some were cremated in Indian Hospitals (where medical experimentation was done), some in unmarked graves, but I truly think we are just at the tip of the iceberg.

Realistically, it may be as high as 75,000. There are newspaper reports from way back in the day that speak to a 50% death rate at the schools. Yes, 50%.

That is just the number of dead and buried. What about abused and tortured? Raped and beaten? That number is at or near — or exceeds — 150,000.  

So, what happens now? There will be apologies. There will be an inquiry. Many people will buy and wear orange shirts as an act of solidarity — and I thank those who do. For a few weeks, it will saturate the news. 

Canada will try to sidestep their active participation and coordination of genocide. Canadian political groups may use this tragedy to help bolster their image for re-election. Good for them. I don't really care why they do the right thing just that they do the right thing.

"This was a sad part of our history (trying to put it in the past) for which we apologize (on behalf of folk long dead so what can we really do about it?) and move forward as a nation (with some parades and emotionally charged solidarity)...

But this doesn't go away with an apology and a kumbaya.

So, the Canadian government will continue to apologize again and again — AND try to slide the blame over to the church, particularly the Catholic Church as they operated about 70% of all of these assimilation centres and because they are perceived to be immune to the law, in many cases above the law, and incredibly well-funded — plus they are well-known bastards with a long history of being hated — the perfect pre-made scapegoat.

So, records will be slow to be produced. Records that support a narrative of this being 'all the churchs' fault" will likely be more readily found and produced than those which directly implicate our government. Some of the records found will be destroyed.

But the truth will come out. Survivor stories will be told. 

And it is not just the Catholic Church — though they are a particularly vicious organization with a very long history of abuse and paedophilia — exactly who you would NOT want to entrust with children. These are the same self-righteous charmers who brought us the Inquisition, an infamous history of torture and persecution that goes back to the 12th century. I am not a fan. 

I have Christian and Catholic friends whom I love. I love individuals but not institutions who do not hold themselves to account. Love them or hate them, these organizations will be thrown under the bus as they deserve.

Outrage will swell. This time, voices will not be silenced. Atrocities will be acknowledged albeit begrudgingly. Truth and Reconciliation will finally be heard. Land claims, forms of governance and governments will finally be resolved. 

If you read canadahistory.ca, you'll see "Western Canada's Treaties were intended to provide frameworks for respectful coexistence." 

In Canada, Treaties represent the source of First Nation's peoples' unique nation-to-nation relationship with the Crown. When I first read that 'the treaties were meant as a means of respectful coexistence,' I thought, 'that sounds about right.' Then I thought more of the histories. It sounds great, but it is not true.

I do not know if Canada is capable of honestly dealing with this shame, and guilt as a nation. 

Groups protect their own. I worry that those that do come across evidence may destroy it 'for the collective good.' Destruction of evidence is a very common practice. I think we need to acknowledge that we cannot be trusted as a nation to investigate this on our own. I would like the UN as a neutral third party to work with us as a nation as we uncover our historical truths.

What will not happen — though I would very much love it to — is for every church involved to have their church property revoked (not burned to the ground as is happening in our country), all of their records confiscated and made public (as appropriate) and all of the known abusers still working with them abusing the next generation of children, brought to justice. 

Every Canadian should read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Final Report. This should be taught in schools. Groups should be brought together to discuss this as a nation and work together to plan the next steps. 

Folk around the world should read it, too. Canada has a long history of missing and murdered women and children. The Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry did good work and produced 231 Calls to Justice. 

These recent news stories will finally be the boot to the neck of Canada to acknowledge the hidden history of this planned, funded genocide by the government of Canada. These recently discovered remains will be the final pebble that creates an avalanche.

This is a powerful time in our history. This is our chance to do what is right — what is just. This is a chance to truly listen and take steps to collectively mend ourselves as a nation of nations. Sadness and outrage are natural responses to this truth. I hope you, too, feel a passionate desire for justice — for Truth & Reconciliation. 

Thank you to Roy Vickers for sharing this powerful image to help gain awareness and create dialogue for lasting change. 

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.

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 the 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 found themselves needing 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 paleontology 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 aluminum 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.

There are many sites along the Yorkshire Coast which 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

TEMNODONTOSAURUS CRASSIMANUS

Temnodontosaurus crassimanus

This big beastie is the ichthyosaur, Temnodontosaurus crassimanus, who graced our ancient oceans 180 million years ago. The species was originally named by Richard Owen, the first superintendent of the Natural History Museum. Owen lived at the height of the gentleman scientist and it was Owen who first coined the name dinosaur. Dean Lomax did some work with this specimen as part of his research leading up to his PhD.

The fellow you see here is the Type Specimen for the species and he lives on display in the Yorkshire Museum. As the reference specimen for the species, all hopeful specimens that may belong to this species are checked against the Type Specimen to see if they share diagnostic features.

The Yorkshire Museum was given this important ichthyosaur fossil back in 1857, albeit in bits and pieces. The first bits of fossil bones were found near Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast by workmen quarrying alum. They recognized the bones as belonging to a fossilized reptile and alerted local authorities who in turn alerted the good Master Owen.

It was quite an undertaking to recover as it was found in more than fifty pieces in massive shale blocks and the alum quarry was active at the time. Alum quarrying helped share the Yorkshire Coast as an important staple of the textile industry going back to the 16th-century. By the 1860s, alum quarrying was slowing down. The ability to manufacture synthetic alum by 1855 had shifted the industry and it died out entirely by 1871. Lucky for us, the last years of alum production gifted us this well-preserved eight-metre specimen, one of the largest ichthyosaurs ever discovered in the UK.

Paleo-coordinates: 54.5° N, 0.6° W: paleocoordinates 42.4° N, 9.3° E

CAMBRIAN MYSTERIES OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES

Mount Stephen, Canadian Rockies

High up on the mountain tops of the Canadian Rockies of southeastern British Columbia — on the western edge of Western Canada's Sedimentary Basin — there are mysteries more than half a billion years old. 

Here, for more than a century, palaeontologists have been exploring over a dozen geologic outcrops that speak of a world when arthropods ruled the seas. 

The rocks we walk across are made of shale, thin-bedded limestone, and siltstone deposited during the Middle Cambrian — 513 to 497 million years ago. And these are no ordinary rocks for what they contain — exceptionally preserved soft-bodied fossils of the Burgess Shale biota. 

Charles Doolittle Walcott will be forever remembered for his extraordinary 1909 discovery of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of Yoho National Park in southern British Columbia — delivering to the world one of the most important biota of soft-bodied organisms in the fossil record. Here we find a fairly complete look at an ancient ecosystem with algae, grazers and filter feeders, scavengers and active predators. Remarkably, soft-bodied organisms make up 98% of individuals and 85% of the genera. These animals lived and died in the deep waters at the base of what would later become the Cathedral Escarpment.

In 1908, Walcott wrote, "Nearly every fragment of shale found on the slopes from 2000 to 2600 feet above Field has fossils upon it; not only fragments but usually entire specimens of trilobites.” It was for this reason he returned the following year to collect and the rest, as they say, is history.

The sheer volume and level of preservation were unknown at the time. Walcott's material came from a single section on the west side of the ridge between Mount Wapta and Mount Field and was collected from the main quarry in the Phyllopod bed and the smaller Raymond quarry some 23 m above. 

The Burgess Shale section occurs in the lower two-thirds of the Stephen Formation where the basinal shales abut against the steep face of the adjacent dolomite reef of the Cathedral Formation. The conditions necessary for the preservation of the soft parts of the organisms appear to have been controlled by the proximity of this reef front. Away from the reef front, exceptional preservation is less common.

A view to Mount Stephen, Canadian Rockies

The Burgess Shale was long considered to be a unique occurrence. Then in 1977, Canadian geologist, Ian McIlreath, found that the Cathedral Escarpment or reef front, could be traced for about 20 km southeast of Walcott's quarry and that the contact between the reef and basinal shales cropped out again on Mount Field, Mount Stephen, Mount Odaray, Park Mountain and Curtis Peak. 

Des Collins speculated that more localities of soft-bodied fossils might be found in the basinal shales near these contacts, and, indeed, a few indications were later reported by Aitken and McIlreath (1981) along the line of the Escarpment. 

In 1981 and 1982, we expanded our knowledge of the region. Des Collins and others organized fieldwork that led to the discovery of about a dozen new localities, which Collins et al. published in 1983.

The most promising of the new localities occurred in a large in situ block of pale grey-blue siliceous shale about 1500 m southwest of the outcrop of the Cathedral Escarpment on the north shoulder of Mount Stephen. 

This is about 5 km almost directly south of the Burgess Shale quarries. The site was excavated by a Royal Ontario Museum party in the summer of 1983. Further fieldwork in 1986 led to the discovery of the arthropod Sanctacaris was first described by Briggs and Collins in 1988. 

Sanctacaris uncata, Mount Stephen Fossil Beds

The stratigraphic level where the block occurred is characterized by the trilobite, Glossopleura, which is the local zone fossil for the basal part of the basinal Stephen Formation (Fritz, 1971). 

In the Stephen Formation section of about 1000 m to the north on Mount Stephen measured by Fritz, the top of the Glossopleura Zone is 40 m below the level equivalent to the main Burgess Shale quarry. 

The block excavated was at least 40 m below the top of the Glossopleura Zone. This puts it 80 m or more stratigraphically below the level of the Burgess Shale Phyllopod bed.

The faunal assemblage from the block is dominated by the arthropods, Alalcomenaeua and Branchiocaris, which are very rare in the Burgess Shale. Many other Burgess Shale animals were found (Collins et al. 1983) but surprisingly not the most common — Marrella. They did find many new forms and published their finds in 1986 (Collins, 1986). By all accounts, this fauna is distinct from those in the Burgess Shale — and a shade older. 

But as we learn and gain insight, we also realize how much we have yet to learn. These outcrops help us to gain an understanding of the biology, ecology, diversity and evolution of Cambrian animals in a way that other Cambrian sites cannot. Without this insight, we would have a very limited view of the Cambrian Explosion and see only the shelly fossil assemblages. The unique conditions in the Burgess Shale record species that under typical circumstances, would never have fossilized and would be lost to us forever.

There has been no end of mysteries and riddles to be solved in the designating and correlating units within the Stephen Formation, Burgess Shale Formation, and the Cathedral Formation. Much of the controversy stems from the extensive faulting in the area and especially from environmental (facies) differences between the stratigraphic units. 

There are shelf platform sequences that include shallow water inner detrital belt, middle carbonate belt, and carbonate shelf edge facies, as well as deeper water (basinal) outer detrital belt facies. These have all have posed problems in correlation and descriptions of the formations in the area.

What used to be known as the Stephen Formation is now restricted to what was known as the "thin" Stephen Formation. The Stephen Formation now includes the Narao and Wapituk Members. What was formerly the "thick" Stephen Formation (basinal Stephen) is now called the Burgess Shale Formation. 

Pirania sp., extinct sea sponges, Burgess Shale

This formation comprises units that include the classic Burgess Shale localities (Walcott Quarry (including the "phyllopod bed"), Raymond Quarry), the Mt. Stephen Trilobite Beds, as well as most of the soft-bodied faunas (Collins Quarry, S7, Ehmaniella Zone faunas, etc.).

The Burgess Shale is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Burgess Shale and Stephen Formations outcrop mainly in Banff and Yoho National Parks in the Alberta-British Columbia border area. All known outcrops are in Canada's Rocky Mountain Parks, so collecting is strictly forbidden. 

While you cannot collect in the parks, you can join in on a guided tour to hike, explore, capturing the beautiful scenery and fossils with your camera and through rubbings. If you fancy a hike to these exalted cliffs, follow the link below.

If an armchair visit is more your thing, pick up a copy of, A Geoscience Guide To The Burgess Shale. This illustrated guide immerses the reader in the history, geology, environment and, most importantly, fossils of the Burgess Shale in an easy-to-read, concise summary of life as it was over 500 million years ago. Excellent colour images of 3D interpretations of the organisms and photos of the fossils make this resource a must-have for anyone interested in the Burgess Shale. 

Burgess Shale Hikes: https://www.burgess-shale.bc.ca/burgess-shale-hikes/  / Toll free: 1 (800) 343-3006; Tel: 1 (250) 343-6006; Email: info@burgess-shale.bc.ca

A Burgess Shale Primer: History, Geology and Research Highlights; Jean-Bernard Caron & Dave Rudkin: https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/imce/burgess_shale_primer.pdf

References: Palaeontology, Vol 31, Part 3. 1988, pp 779-798, pls 71-73) was discovered by Collins (1986),http://palaeontology.palass-pubs.org/pdf/Vol 31/Pages 779-798.pdf

Image: Reconstruction of Sanctacaris uncata, a Cambrian Habeliidan arthropod (stem-Chelicerata: Habeliida). by Junnn11 @ni075; Pirania sp. & photos: @Fossil Huntress

IN PRAISE OF FOSSIL LAGERSTÄTTEN

A Lagerstätte is a sedimentary deposit with extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation — sometimes preserving soft tissues when we are very lucky. 

When you see a specimen and it makes you go 'whoah' — that is a good indication that you are likely seeing one of the wonderfully preserved goodies from these marvellous sites.

There are about 50 sites we collectively describe as Lagerstätten — though there are many more sites that could reasonably be argued for — and they are. The list below gives you a place to start but it is by no means exhaustive and will grow as more sites are found and explored.

If you are curious about checking out these wonderfully preserved sites, pay a visit to @FossilBonanza, the Twitter home of Andy, an educator at NHMU. On both his @FossilBonanza Twitter stream and his podcast of the same name, Andy gushes about Lagerstätten from around the globe.

He's also created a rather clever interactive map of the world’s Lagerstätten divided by time period. You can visit here: https://maphub.net/FossilBonanza/Lagerstatte. To listen to the Fossil Bonanza Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/.../fossil-bonanza/id1535645906

CAMBRIAN BIVALVED ARTHROPODS

Bivalved Cambrian Arthropods had a carapace that covered their cephalothorax — their fused head and thorax — and is most often the only structure preserved in the fossil record. It is the exceptional preservation at sites like the Burgess Shale — and other Cambrian Lagerstätten — that has opened up our understanding and allowed us to know more about these ancient marine animals. 

The image you see here is a composite from many publications that have been pulled together into a full composite with scaling by the talented Alejandro Izquierdo, an evolutionary biologist fast-tracking his way to a PhD at the University of Toronto's Invertebrate Palaeontology lab. The Canadaspis shadow you see here is from Derek Brigg's 1975 reconstruction. I have modified the image further still and you are welcome to use it as a teaching tool — but please do credit Alejandro as he did all the heavy lifting in putting it together.

I caught up with Alejandro this week to ask about the origins of this image — which I have modified a bit further still — and to talk about Pakucaris apatis and Fibulacaris nereidis — two recent additions to our knowledge of bivalved arthropods. Both show us how "bizarre" some of these animals can be. Pakucaris presents different features — frontal filaments, a pygidium — which may be important in the future to understand early arthropod evolution.

Beyond his research into our Cambrian friends, Alejandro is a science writer and prog-rock aficionado. Should you want to catch up with him, find him on Twitter @trichodes or for all sorts of yummy evolutionary biology goodness seek out the site he co-runs with Marc Riera, an ecologist and PhD student looking at biological invasions at CREAF — a public research centre that exists as a consortium between different public entities — administrations, universities, and research centres and institutes. You can find Marc @bitoptera and their combined work at @ElephaBacteria. 

Do visit their delightful website — On elephants and bacteria — a feast of interdisciplinary topics that gather evolutionary biology, astronomy, history with a mission to advance scientific thinking. It is well worth exploring. Here is the link: https://onelephantsandbacteria.net/

CHELICERATES: EURYPTERIDS, SPIDERS AND HORSESHOE CRABS

Sanctacaris uncata, (Briggs & Collins, 1988)

Chelicerates first emerged in our ancient oceans some 508 million years ago, as the arthropod Sanctacaris uncata (Briggs & Collins, 1988) known from the Glossopleura Zone, Stephen Formation of Mount Stephen in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. 

Sanctacaris is proof positive that chelicerates, although rare, were present in our Middle Cambrian seas. 

Even at this early stage of evolution, Sanctacaris had the number and type of head appendages found — though in modified form — in eurypterids and xiphosurids, the major Palaeozoic groups that succeeded it. Even more interesting is that Sanctacaris had all the characteristics of later chelicerates except chelicerae — placing this early arthropod in a primitive sister group of all other chelicerates.

An extinct marine creature half a billion years old may sound otherworldly, but you know some of their more well-known marine brethren — sea spiders, the sexy eurypterids, chasmataspidids and horseshoe crabs — and some of their terrestrial cousins — spiders, scorpions, harvestmen, mites and ticks. 

They are grouped together because, like all arthropods, they have a segmented body and segmented limbs and a thick chitinous cuticle called an exoskeleton. Add those characteristics to a body system with two body segments — a cephalothorax and an abdomen. 

Like all arthropods, chelicerates' bodies and appendages are covered with a tough cuticle made mainly of chitin and chemically hardened proteins. 

Since this cannot stretch, the animals must moult to grow. In other words, they grow new but still soft cuticles, then cast off the old one and wait for the new one to harden. 

Until the new cuticle hardens the animals are defenceless and almost immobilized.  

This also helps to explain why you find so many cephalons or moulted head shields — or whatever else our good arthropod friends shed and regrow — in the field and far fewer body fossils of the whole animal.

Some chelicerate are predatory animals that patrol the warm waters near thermal vents. They can be found feeding upon other predators and fish. Although the group were originally solely predatory, they have diversified to use all sorts of feeding strategies: predation, parasitism, herbivory, scavenging and dining on bits of decaying organic matter. 

Although harvestmen can digest solid food it is more akin to a mashed pulp by the time they do. The guts of most modern chelicerates are too narrow to digest solid food, instead, they generally liquidize their chosen meal by grinding it with their chelicerae and pedipalps then flooding it with digestive enzymes. 

To conserve water, air-breathing chelicerates excrete waste as solids that are removed from their blood by Malpighian tubules, structures that also evolved independently in insects — another case of convergent evolution.

The evolutionary origins of chelicerates from the early arthropods have been debated for decades. And although there is considerable agreement about the relationships between most chelicerate sub-groups, the inclusion of the Pycnogonida in this taxon has recently been questioned and the exact position of scorpions is still controversial — though they have long been considered the most primitive or basal of the arachnids. 

We still have much to explore to sort out their evolutionary origins and placement within the various lineages but we will get there in time.

Image One: Reconstruction of Sanctacaris uncata, a Cambrian Habeliidan arthropod (stem-Chelicerata: Habeliida). by Junnn11 @ni075; Image Two: Chelicerata by Fossil Huntress

Aria C, Caron JB (December 2017). "Mandibulate convergence in an armoured Cambrian stem chelicerate". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 17 (1): 261. doi:10.1186/s12862-017-1088-7. PMC 5738823. PMID 29262772.

Legg DA (December 2014). "Sanctacaris uncata: the oldest chelicerate (Arthropoda)". Die Naturwissenschaften. 101 (12): 1065–73. doi:10.1007/s00114-014-1245-4. PMID 25296691.

Briggs DE, Collins D (August 1988). "A Middle Cambrian chelicerate from Mount Stephen, British Columbia" (PDF). Palaeontology. 31 (3): 779–798. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 16, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2010.

Briggs DE, Erwin DH, Collier FJ (1995). Fossils of the Burgess Shale. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 1-56098-659-X. OCLC 231793738.

FIBULACARIS NEREIDIS: A NEW BIVALVED CAMBRIAN ARTHROPOD

Fibulacaris nereidis / Artwork by Danielle Dufault @MesozoicMuse

Fibulacaris nereidis is a new species joining the ranks of the Cambrian bivalved arthropod. Alejandro Izquierdo-López and Jean-Bernard Caron published on this new species, closely related to Pakucaris back in 2019. 

The wonderful illustration above by the talented Danielle Dufault shows how bizarre or alien some of these animals can be. 

The origin of the arthropod carapace, an enlargement of cephalic tergites, can be traced back to the Cambrian period. Even so, its disparity and evolution are still not fully understood. It is the detailed study of species such as this new ‘bivalved’ arthropod, Fibulacaris nereidis gen. et sp. nov., that will help us get closer to the truth. 

Interpretive Cladogram

The team had plenty of material to work with for this analysis. This new species is based upon 102 specimens from the middle Cambrian, Wuliuan Stage,  Burgess Shale, Marble Canyon area in British Columbia's Kootenay National Park, Canada. 

The laterally compressed carapace covers most of the body. It is fused dorsally and merges anteriorly into a conspicuous postero-ventrally recurved rostrum as long as the carapace and positioned between a pair of backwards-facing pedunculate eyes. 

The body is homonomous, with approximately 40 weakly sclerotized segments bearing biramous legs with elongate endopods, and ends in a pair of small flap-like caudal rami. Fibulacaris nereidis is interpreted as a suspension feeder possibly swimming inverted, in a potential case of convergence with some branchiopods. 

A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis places it within a group closely related to the extinct Hymenocarina. Fibulacaris nereidis is unique in its carapace morphology and overall widens the ecological disparity of Cambrian arthropods and suggests that the evolution of a ‘bivalved' carapace and an upside-down lifestyle may have occurred early in stem-group crustaceans.

Fibulacaris nereidis contributes to the increasing morphological, functional, ecologic and taxonomic diversity of bivalved arthropods known from the Cambrian period. The shape of the carapace, with its single posteriorly directed ventral rostrum, appears to be morphologically unique not only among Cambrian and other fossil species but similarly rare across extant crustaceans or other arthropods. The carapace, including the rostrum, most probably had a protective role, but as in other extant arthropods, could have contributed to swimming performance and the creation of feeding currents. 

F. nereidis may have moved through our ancient seas swimming in an inverted position — rare across arthropods and analogous to that observed in anostracans and some cladocerans. This highlight the importance of the carapace morphology in palaeo-ecological reconstructions and show that the arthropod carapace was already both a morphologically and functionally diverse character in the Cambrian period. 

Bivalved Cambrian Arthropods / Alejandro  Izquierdo-López

Their phylogenetic analysis reveals a potential new group of mandibulate deposits and suspension feeders with homonomous legs and segments — some lacking certain mandibulate characters, such as antennae or mandibles — which may be related to an adaptation to this ecological niche and further illustrate a case of convergent evolution with some branchiopod taxa. 

These results suggest that the bivalved carapace could have been a basal trait for all Mandibulata or may even have had an earlier origin if this and the bivalved carapace of the Isoxyiidae were found to be homologous. 

Homologies between arthropod carapaces, bivalved or not, and structures such as radiodont shields, non-crustaceomorph univalved carapaces (e.g. Burgessia, Naraoia) and head shields (e.g. fuxianhuiids, habeliids, nauplius) are still quite poorly understood. We will need to find more examples to fully flesh out a comprehensive evolutionary analysis on this trait. 

Besides, new data and morphological revisions on key bivalved arthropods could reshape the present phylogenetic analyses. Nonetheless, Cambrian bivalved arthropods certainly show a high ecological and taxonomic disparity, that is increasingly contributing to the understanding of the evolution of early arthropods and the Cambrian period as a whole.

Top Image by the talented Danielle Dufault @MesozoicMuse. Composite Bivalved Cambrian Arthropods by Alejandro Izquierdo-López. 

Illustration: Interpretative cladogram based on a consensus tree from a Bayesian analysis using a Markov k model on a morphological dataset with 90 taxa and 213 characters. There is some interpretation here. Numbers next to nodes are posterior probabilities. The yellow box indicates the new monophyletic group to which Fibulacaris belongs. The green box highlights the group Hymenocarina.

Reference link: A Burgess Shale mandibulate arthropod with a pygidium: a case of convergent evolution. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/spp2.1366

PAKUCARIS APATIS: A PAC-MAN-LIKE-CRAB OF THE GODDESS OF DECEIT

Pakucaris apatis. Illustration by Danielle Dufault, ROM

Meet Pakucaris apatis — the Pac-Man-like Crab of the Goddess of Deceit Apate — from the heart of the Canadian Rockies.

This fresh look at evolutionary trends during the Cambrian Explosion landed in my inbox — straight off the press from its June 15, 2021 publication in Papers in Palaeontology. 

In it, Alejandro Izquierdo-López and Jean-Bernard Caron untangle the evolutionary mysteries of Cambrian bivalved arthropods — a polyphyletic group of carapace-bearing arthropods that includes stem euarthropods, stem mandibulates and crustaceans. 

They describe Pakucaris apatis gen. et sp. nov., a new stem mandibulate bivalved arthropod from the middle Cambrian, Wuliuan Stage, Burgess Shale at Marble Canyon, Kootenay National Park, British Columbia, Canada. 

This new half a billion-year-old Burgess Shale mandibulate arthropod is the first we are seeing with a pygidium — an exciting case of convergent evolution. 

In Pakucaris, the pygidium — the plate-like region formed by the fusion of posterior body segments — has limbs similar to the preceding thorax/trunk. In this case, it convergently evolved between trilobites, mollisoniids and Pakucaris apatis — though Kylinxia also had a pygidium. 

Pakucaris apatis, a new Cambrian bivalved arthropod

Although similar structures appear in crustaceans, this is the first time we see a pygidium in a mandibulate (crustaceans + myriapods). What are we seeing in these Cambrian arthropods? 

The authors note that the number of segments in the thorax and pygidium of Pakucaris apatis increase at the same rate. 

If this occurs — as it does in trilobites — then the rate of segment generation in the pygidium must have exactly matched the rate of segment release. 

In our new friend, Pakucaris apatis only a few specimens have ever been found, so we have only two morphotypes of this wee arthropod from 11.6–26.6 mm long, which differ mainly in their size and number of segments — possibly reflecting sexual dimorphism (the differences between male and female of a species) or different anamorphic stages. 

Most specimens are around ~1 cm long but a single specimen is ~3 cm long. Given the limited number of specimens, we cannot yet speculate if we are seeing differences between males and females or post-embryonic growth and moulting stages within the species as seen in proturans and millipedes. Either possibility could be the case. We will hopefully find more of these lovelies within the Burgess Shale and elsewhere as a base of comparison.

Pakucaris apatis Alejandro Izquierdo @trichodes

The carapace is a dorsal crest that extends anteriorly into a small recurved rostrum and two anterolateral processes. 

Pakucaris also have some very interesting filiform structures at their head. These likely originate before the eyes and could be related to the labrum complex. The labrum is that flat extension of the head (below the clypeus), we see covering the mandibles of arthropods. Unlike other mouthparts, the labrum is a single, fused plate — though it originally was—and embryonically is—two structures.

The filiform structures we see in Pakucaris pop up in many arthropods, and their evolution provides an interesting puzzle.

Around 20% of the posterior-most body segments and limbs are covered by a large spine-bearing shield. The head bears a pair of eyes, a possible pair of unsegmented appendicular projections and two pairs of segmented appendages. 

The thorax is multisegmented, homonomous, with weakly sclerotized segments bearing biramous limbs, composed of a stenopodous endopod with c. 20 podomeres and a paddle-shaped exopod. 

Pakucaris is interpreted as a nektobenthic suspension feeder. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis implies a position within Hymenocarina as stem mandibulates. 

The posterior shield is regarded as a pygidium and represents a case of morphofunctional convergent evolution between mandibulates, artiopodans and mollisoniids. 

Trilobite Anatomy for Comparison

What is most interesting about Pakucaris apatis is it adds to a growing number of pygidium-bearing arthropods, potentially hinting at a common developmental pattern across early arthropod evolution. 

Many of our Cambrian arthropod friends faced similar living conditions and challenges — and adapted to them in similar means. Is this what we are seeing in Pakucaris? Maybe. 

Pakucaris does have a rather fetching posterior shield, which may be analogous to a trilobite pygidium — the plate-like fused segments used for protection and sometimes enrolment. Arthropods have evolved this feature multiple times convergently. And many crustaceans technically go through a pygidium phase — the oddity there being retaining it into adulthood.

This study not only increases our understanding of the early evolution of mandibulates but also illustrates a unique case of early evolutionary convergence during the Cambrian Explosion.

The name Pakucaris apatis means Pac-Man-like crab of the goddess of deceit Apate. Maryam A., the collection managers at the Royal Ontario Museum suggested it after noting the resemblance to the videogame character. She was a huge contribution to the team pulling this paper together.

Bivalved Cambrian Arthropods / Alejandro Izquierdo

Pakucaris belongs to a group of Cambrian arthropods termed bivalved arthropods. These have a carapace that covers their cephalothorax, in many cases, the only structure preserved. Exceptional preservation has allowed us to know more about these animals, albeit often only the hard parts of them.

Overall, Pakucaris shows us how different Cambrian bivalved arthropods can be — making our current phylogenies more difficult to clarify — and presents different features (frontal filaments, pygidium) which may be important as we look to understand early arthropod evolution.

Their paper was made possible by the University of Toronto and Royal Ontario Museum along with la Asociación de Becarios de la Caixa — funding research that expands our knowledge of nature. So far Pakucaris is classified in Hymenocarina — stem-crustaceans or mandibulates with bivalved carapaces — joining other Cambrian arthropods like Waptia fieldensis — but there is still much we do not know about this group and additional research — and research funding — will help us solve these mysteries.

Photos / Illustrations: Alejandro Izquierdo, University of Toronto. Art by Danielle Dufault, Palaeo-Scientific Ilustrator, Research Assistant at the Royal Ontario Museum, Host of Animalogic

References: A Burgess Shale mandibulate arthropod with a pygidium: a case of convergent evolution. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spp2.1366